Marianas
by alterocentrist
Summary: AU. Paige McCullers is a transfer student on a sports scholarship at Rosewood Prep. Her arrival coincides with the return of the manipulative troublemaker Alison DiLaurentis. If Paige thought boarding school was sufficiently out of her depth, then she has no idea what she's getting herself into when she grabs the attention of Emily Fields, Alison's former best friend.
1. Welcome to Rosewood

It was a windy day at the Hartford bus station. Paige McCullers pulled the lapels of her jacket together and folded her arms over her chest. She blocked the instructions her father rattled out as she lined up to get her luggage on the bus; she heard them a thousand times before anyway.

"Paige, are you even listening to me?" her father asked. "You're spacing out." Her father, Nick, was already handing her luggage to the bus driver.

"Dad, it's nothing I haven't heard," she said. Nick gave her a look, so she rolled her eyes and deadpanned: "I'll call you when I get into New York to make sure I go to the correct train station, then I'll call you when I'm on the train to Pittsburgh, then I'll call you when I've gotten to Rosewood."

Her dad handed her some bills he pulled out of his wallet. "I put enough money on your cash card for meals, and here's some in case you need to get a cab if you miss the shuttle," he told her. He opened his arms. "Now, give your dad a hug before you get on the bus."

Paige wrapped her arms around her dad's neck. She was only a couple of inches shorter than him already, even if she was just in sneakers. "You'll miss me around at home?" she asked him.

Nick kissed the side of his daughter's head. "I won't miss the extra fifty bucks of groceries that comes with shopping for you," he said. He let go of her. "I'll tell your mother you said goodbye."

"Yeah, that would be nice. It sucks that she couldn't come today."

"Don't have too much fun in Rosewood. The two Ss, remember: school and swimming."

"Of course, Dad."

* * *

She had spent her life in Storrs. Her father was the men's water polo coach at the University of Connecticut, so she was around water from an early age. But Nick McCullers soon discovered that his daughter's real strength was in competitive swimming, not water polo. At her first swim meet at age seven, Paige ended up swimming better times than the best nine-year-olds. Even as a sophomore in high school, Paige hadn't lost her status as a swimming prodigy of sorts.

However, she wasn't particularly well-liked at her school, regardless of the trophies and the gold medals she won for them. When Paige was offered a full-ride sports scholarship to the Rosewood Preparatory Academy in Pennsylvania, she jumped at the chance to take it. To her parents, it meant a better-funded swim program where the swimmers are closely monitored academically. To Paige, it was a fresh start. Perhaps she would even have real friends this time around.

She disembarked from the train at the Pittsburgh station. The first thing she noticed was the weather wasn't too different from what it was like in Connecticut, but that was probably just because it was raining, just like when she left. After calling her dad to let him know that she had gotten there safely, she spotted a man holding up a sign saying "Rosewood Prep Shuttle". There were already a few people her age standing next to him, most of them with expensive-looking luggage.

Paige immediately felt self-conscious in her huge suitcase, her worn out gym bag and plain black backpack, all of which she bought from Target. She knew the typical prep school kid would be more well off than her, but she didn't expect that fact to be rubbed right in her face even before she set foot on campus.

The shuttle filled up quickly and Paige was having difficulty choosing a place to sit. Scanning the rows, she noticed one guy sitting alone. He had black hair that came down to his chin. Unlike the other guys there, who wore chinos or perfectly pressed bermudas with J Crew shirts, this guy was wearing frayed denim shorts and a navy blue t-shirt under a faded black hoodie. She decided to sit next to him.

"Hi," he said. His voice was gentle. "Are you new?"

"Yeah. I'm a junior though. Transfer student. My name's Paige," she replied.

"Caleb," the guy said. He held his hand out. Paige shook it and felt the roughness of his palm.

"Where are you from, Caleb?" she asked.

"All over the place, but most recently, Virginia," he replied. "What about you?"

"Connecticut."

"You play basketball?"

"That's an unfair assumption to make just because I'm from Connecticut."

Caleb nodded at the sweatshirt Paige was wearing under her jacket. "The Huskies? In Panthers territory? You're treading dangerous waters here," he joked. "Also, you're like, seven, seven-point-five feet tall, which is really tall for a girl."

Paige shook her head. "I'm five-feet-eight, you're stereotyping, but yes, I play basketball."

Caleb grinned. "I knew it! So... what brings you to Rosewood Prep?"

"Sports scholarship," Paige told him.

"For basketball?"

"Swimming."

"You're planning to do your two sports requirements in one season?" Paige nodded. Caleb pursed his lips. "Impressive. Well, I wrestle in the winter. Baseball in the spring."

Paige glanced at Caleb's calloused hands. "Batter?" she asked.

"Catcher, actually," he replied.

"I take it you're a Panther?"

Caleb shook his head. "My family is from Virginia, so I guess I'm a Cavalier."

Paige and Caleb debated over the quality of the competition between Big East and the Atlantic Coast. Paige adamantly insisted that the Big East had more raw talent, but Caleb was a staunch Atlantic Coast man.

Eventually, the bus entered Rosewood Prep's gates. A colonial-style building was at the end of the long driveway. Next to the bronze "Rosewood Preparatory Academy Reception" plaque was a small whiteboard announcing "Dorm registrations here!" in enthusiastic uppercase block letters. The shuttle parked in front of the sign and the driver opened the doors. Caleb and Paige gathered their belongings and got off the bus.

"Hey, Rivers!" a loud voice from behind them yelled out. "Got your tights ready for the season?"

Caleb turned around. "What's up, Kahn? I thought your daddy was going to drive you to Rosewood today," he said.

A tall, handsome guy with short dark hair and gray-blue eyes approached Caleb. "Well, he probably would have cancelled his trip if he had known you were going to be on the shuttle with me," he said snidely. "Or at least hired a car to take me to campus."

Caleb raised an eyebrow. "Afraid that you'll get your hands dirty? Break a nail?"

The guy smirked while taking another step forward. He was almost chest to chest with Caleb. "No, he just didn't want me to be in such a small space with someone of the incorrect breeding. The trashiness may be contagious," he said.

Paige noticed a shadow pass over Caleb's face, but she blinked and it was gone. What replaced it was a steely look of hatred. Caleb put a hand on the guy's shoulder, but instead of pushing him, he took a step backward himself. He took a deep breath. "I have no time for this," he said slowly. "Step off."

The guy's face twitched, then he let out a quick, but booming laugh. "Come on, Rivers," he taunted. He gave Paige a once over. "Is this your new girlfriend? You looked like you were getting cozy with her on the ride here."

Paige shifted uncomfortably as the guy stared her down. Then he sneered at her while slinging a holdall over his shoulder. He nodded at Caleb. "I'll catch you later, Rivers." He walked off, but not before sending a wink at Paige's direction.

Caleb seemed to shrug the encounter off, and grabbed a beat-up shell suitcase and a newer-looking duffel bag. "I got my stuff," he announced lamely.

She found her gym bag and suitcase out of the pile of luggage on the ground. "Shall we go and register?" she asked him.

Rosewood Prep's huge reception, which resembled a fancy country hotel's, hardly had any students in it for registration. Caleb noted the look of confusion on Paige's face, so he checked the time on his phone for her. "It's only noon," he explained. "Most kids have lunch with their parents then get driven here."

They got in line. Caleb was up at the counter first. "Rivers, Barnes Hall."

After Caleb got his key, he stepped aside to wait until Paige signed in. "McCullers, Thompson Hall," she told the lady behind the counter.

"You're new, aren't you, Miss McCullers?" the lady asked.

"Sure am," said Paige. The lady reached for a piece of paper under her desk and handed it to Paige, along with her room key. Paige looked at it. It was a map of the Rosewood Prep campus. "Thanks," she said.

The lady smiled. "Don't mention it. Have a nice day."

Caleb asked Paige to follow him through a side door. They walked along a tree-covered pathway which led to a quad surrounded by four three-story buildings in the similar colonial style. Caleb pointed the buildings out to Paige. "Howard and Wright are for freshmen and sophomore girls and guys, and Barnes and Thompson are for juniors and seniors. Looks straight out of a movie, doesn't it?"

A group of guys in chinos and cardigans brushed past them, talking in loud voices, like everyone else seemed to do at prep school. Paige stared at them. "Yeah, Caleb, a movie where teenage boys argue about whether shell cordovan is better than merino for their laptop cases," she said. "What the hell is shell cordovan?"

"Welcome to Rosewood," said Caleb with a laugh.

* * *

The dorm room at Thompson was bigger than Paige expected it to be. There were two double beds on either side of the room, two wardrobes, two chests of drawers, two desk and chairs and two bookshelves. One side of the room was already occupied, judging from the sheets on the bed and the books on the shelf, which meant that Paige got the bed closer to the window - something that she had hoped for. She liked her roommate already.

Paige opened her gym bag, in which she packed most of the stuff she needed for her room. She put her favourite mug on the desk, along with her laptop. She was putting sheets on her bed when a shorter, wavy-haired girl walked into the room, arguing with someone on her phone.

"Hanna, I know you want to hang out right now. I missed you over the summer too. I'm kind of busy right now though," she was saying. "Busy on sign in day? Well, yeah... I'm still working on some coding for that website I'm trying to build. It's continuation of work I did over the summer." she rolled her eyes. "Hanna! I'm sorry. I'm busy right now, okay? I'll text you later, promise. Okay. Bye." She hung up and shoved her phone in her pocket.

"Hey." Paige did a little sheepish wave. "You must be my roommate."

The girl stared at Paige, before speaking in a quieter voice than she had when she was on the phone. "Yeah, I must be. I'm Mona Vanderwaal. And you are?"

"Paige McCullers." Paige shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. "I'm new here," she added.

"I figured," said Mona. She opened the drawer on her nightstand to pull out a laptop, which she turned on. "I spent sophomore year at Howard Hall with the room to myself, so, sorry, I'm still getting used to this roommate thing again."

"Yeah, yeah, that's fine," said Paige, shaking her head. "Don't apologise. I'm an only child, so I've never had to share a room with anyone for long periods of time before. If you think you're rusty at this, don't worry - I'm a total beginner," she chuckled.

Mona didn't chuckle back, just stared at her. "You're kinda tall," she said.

"Okay, let's state the obvious. You're kinda loud on the phone," offered Paige.

"Sorry. That was a friend of mine, Hanna. She lives on the floor above."

"It sounds like she wanted you to hang out with her."

Mona shook her head. "No, she wanted to hang around while I unpack and organise her stuff for her." Her eyes widened as Paige's narrowed. "She's not being mean or a bully or anything! Hanna's just lazy. She prefers to talk rather than do things," she explained.

"She sounds like fun."

"Oh, she really is." She nodded enthusiastically and grinned. "She's a lot of fun. I really did miss her over the summer. I would go over to her room to hang out, but I know I'd end up unpacking for her, which is a waste of time, because she's a big girl and I really want to finish up some coding."

Paige sat down on her bed as she set her clock radio up on her nightstand. "Coding? You're into computers, huh?" she asked Mona.

Mona sat down on her own bed and pressed a couple of buttons her laptop. "Yeah, totally," she said. "I signed up for AP French this year, and just to enhance my learning I've decided to create an interactive web tool for my class to use."

"That's cool," said Paige. She picked up the campus map she had put down by her pillow and examined it. "Hey Mona, do you happen to know where the natatorium is?"

"Natatorium?"

"Yeah, you know, where the pools are?"

"Oh, we call that the Harris Aquatic Centre over here, after the alumnus who was an Olympic diver," said Mona. "It's probably labelled Harris on that map. It's a weird thing to do, seeing as the map is for newcomers." Mona's phone beeped. She pulled it out of her pocket, read the screen and gasped. She stood up and shut her laptop screen.

Paige's brow furrowed in concern. "Everything okay?" she asked.

"I gotta go see Hanna," said Mona. "It was nice meeting you!" She ran frantically out of the room.


	2. Distress Signal

Spencer Hastings tucked a piece of hair behind her ear before bending down to slice the scotch fillet she ordered at the Rosewood Country Club, a dish that cost thirty-four dollars, courtesy of her parents. For all the tuition her parents pay at Rosewood Prep, she knew that the beef cuts they ordered for steak night were mediocre. She might as well enjoy what would be her last proper steak before Thanksgiving.

Melissa, her older sister, had her mother engrossed with her upcoming project with her fellow MBA students. Spencer fought the urge to roll her eyes as her older sister excessively peppered the conversation with business terms. Melissa was at Wharton, big deal.

Spencer's father had already tuned out of the conversation minutes ago and was emailing on his BlackBerry under the table. Spencer actually rolled her eyes this time around. Sometimes she believed that she was the most mature person in her family. "Dad, I thought you said no phones at the lunch table," Spencer told him.

Peter Hastings tucked his phone back into his sports jacket. "Sorry about that, honey, duty called. I have to get back to the office ASAP," he said. Noticing the frown on his younger daughter's face, Peter picked up his wine glass. "But first of all, I want to propose a toast to Spencer, who is doing four Honours classes and is made prefect of her class this year."

His wife, Veronica, raised her wine glass, while Melissa half-heartedly touched the stem of hers. "To Spencer," they chorused.

Spencer reached for her glass, intending to join them in the toast, but she felt her bag vibrate against her foot. She picked it up and took her phone out. The text was from Hanna Marin, one of her best friends at school. "SOS!" it said.

Alarmed, Spencer keyed in a reply: "Multiple exclamation points? This better be really good."

* * *

The Hastings drove off once Spencer got her luggage up to her room in Thompson Hall. Her roommate, Aria, appeared to just have put her stuff down and had left in a hurry. Spencer's phone buzzed again. This time it was Aria: "Saw your parents' car. We're in Hanna's room, 3 doors down the hall from ours. Come now!"

Spencer put her bag down and made sure her room key was in her pocket. She walked down the hallway to find Hanna's room, but discovered that it wasn't too difficult. Each dorm door at Rosewood had a whiteboard which the residents were allowed to decorate. Hanna had already obliged, even using assorted colours of whiteboard markers for the occasion.

Spencer knocked on the door. It was opened by Aria, who gave her a brief hug. "You'll never believe the news," she told Spencer. They stepped into the room and shut the door. Besides Aria, there were three other people in the room: Hanna, her roommate Emily Fields and her friend Mona Vanderwaal.

"Okay, what's going on?" asked Spencer.

Hanna chewed on her bottom lip. "You might want to sit down for this," she said.

"Just tell me," said Spencer.

"Alison's coming back to Rosewood," said Hanna.

Spencer blinked. "Like the town?"

"Yeah, the town, and the school."

"Rosewood High?"

Hanna shook her head. "No, Spencer. This school. Alison's coming back to Rosewood Prep."

Spencer sat down on Hanna's bed and took a deep breath. She looked at Emily and Mona, who were sitting on the other side of the room on Emily's bed. Emily looked slightly shaken, while Mona looked like she was going to be sick. "I thought she was in Europe," said Spencer. "How do you know that she's coming back?"

Emily spoke up: "I caught a glimpse of the list with our names and room numbers on it at reception. A few names above mine was Alison DiLaurentis."

"Are you sure your eyes weren't playing tricks on you?" asked Spencer.

"Of course not. Why would they?" Emily tugged at a bracelet she wore on her right wrist.

"Does anyone know who she's rooming with?" Spencer looked at Mona.

"Not me," said Mona. "I have a new roommate."

"Well, whoever it is, I feel sorry for them already," said Spencer. She sighed. "I hope she doesn't come back bringing any trouble. But I don't think we should be scared of her. She's just like us. What's the worst she can do?"

The other four girls stared at her in disbelief. "Did you just say that? Really, Spence?" Aria asked incredulously. "Alison lives to make trouble. Remember the Jenna thing? She framed us for that. You, me, Hanna and Emily almost got expelled! And I'm pretty sure that's not the worst she could do."

"They eventually ruled that out as an accident," said Spencer.

"Yeah, in the end, that's how it worked out. We all know she did it, but she never got caught. I bet you everyone thinks that she's innocent," said Aria. "The point is, Alison is dangerous. I don't want her around, and really, neither do you."

Spencer stood up and put her hand on her hips. "Okay, any ideas on how we're going to stay as far away as possible from Alison?" she asked.

* * *

The dining hall, still gearing up for the task of feeding four hundred pampered teenagers for ten months, served up what they thought would be a no-fuss selection on the first night. There was mac and cheese, an assortment of pizza, animal nuggets, pasta bake and some tossed greens to compensate. Although the majority of male students rejoiced at the sight of frat boy food, most of the girls recoiled.

"I did not work my butt off over the summer to ruin my bikini body for this!"

"Oh my god, that mac and cheese is so orange it might as well be fake tan."

Paige, who spent most of the afternoon in her dorm reading napping and reading, arrived at the dining hall early, so she was able to get her food and sit down before most people. Even if the food looked unhealthy and synthetic, it tasted better than the prepackaged alternatives she had to beg her parents to include in the grocery list.

Caleb approached her table. He was still wearing the same shorts, but changed into a grey long-sleeved t-shirt. "Can I sit here?" he asked Paige. He had a plate piled high in one hand and a half-eaten pizza slice in the other.

"Sure, go ahead," said Paige, gesturing at an empty chair with her fork. "Hey Caleb, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you're allowed to go up for seconds. No need to hoard the food."

Caleb looked at his plate, then looked at Paige, confused. "I am going for seconds," he said. He started scanning the crowd.

"Looking for someone?" asked Paige.

"Yeah, my girlfriend," replied Caleb. His eyes fixed on someone and he started smiling and waving. Paige followed his gaze to a pretty blonde girl standing next to Mona in line to get dinner.

"Hey, I know that girl next to her. That's my roommate," said Paige.

"Mona? That's cool," said Caleb. "My girlfriend's name is Hanna. You won't mind if they sit here?"

"Oh no, feel free," said Paige. "It may be a good way for the new girl to meet some people."

Caleb smiled. "Cool," he said. He gestured for them to come to their table.

Hanna smiled and mouthed, "Yes" at Caleb. She turned to Mona. "Who's that girl she's sitting with? Is she new?" she asked.

Mona nodded. "That's my new roommate, Paige," she said.

"How does she know Caleb?"

"Beats me."

Hanna felt someone tugging on her hair. "I can answer that for you," someone behind her said.

Noel Kahn cut in line, stepping in front of the freshman standing behind Hanna. "I see you're still dating the manky-haired free lunch kid," he said.

"Well, for what it's worth, he's a nice guy who's got brains too," said Hanna. "Unlike you."

"He's a dependent," sneered Noel. He cocked his head to the side. "Come on, Hanna, your family pays into this school. Aren't you a bit, you know, embarrassed to be with someone who doesn't?"

"I'd be more embarrassed if I was stupid enough to go out with you, Noel," said Hanna. "And yeah, Caleb's here on scholarship - so what? It doesn't matter to me." Hanna spooned some vinaigrette over the tossed greens on her plate. "Let's go, Mona."

Caleb was standing by the table when the two girls reached it. "What did Kahn want?" he asked.

"Nothing. He was just being obnoxious." Hanna kissed his cheek. "How was the train ride in?"

"I woke up way earlier than I wanted to, but hey, I'm here now," said Caleb, smiling.

They sat down. "Hey Mona," said Paige. "How's it going?"

"Good," said Mona. "Paige, this is my friend Hanna. Hanna, this is Paige, my roommate."

"Hey Paige," said Hanna. "So, how do you and Caleb know each other?"

"We met on the shuttle from Pittsburgh this morning," explained Paige.

"Where are your other friends?" Caleb asked Hanna.

"Spencer and Emily had to talk to the Honours Chemistry teacher." Hanna shrugged. "And I have no idea where Aria is. Probably starting on her new art portfolio for this year."

Her boyfriend chuckled. "Classes don't start until Wednesday," he said.

"I'm fully aware of that. I'm not sure if the others are."

Mona nudged Hanna. "Aren't you going to tell Caleb about what you found out today?" she asked.

Caleb leaned forward. "Yeah? What's up, Hanna?"

"Mona! I don't want to freak him out on the first day back."

Paige swallowed a bite of food as she observed the exchange. "By being all cryptic in front of him like that, I think you're kind of freaking him out." she said.

"What's going on, Hanna?" asked Caleb.

Hanna looked at Mona. "Hey, you brought it up, so you tell him," she said.

"You date him, so you tell him."

Caleb turned to Paige. "Do you have any idea what's going on?" he asked.

"Dude, it's my first day, don't expect me to know anything," said Paige.

Caleb spoke slowly. "Hanna."

"Look, I don't want you freak out and run off because of this, okay?" She was chewing on her bottom lip and shifting in her seat.

"You're freaking me out right now," said Caleb. "Do you see me running? C'mon, Hanna, I have no idea what's going on, plus you and Mona are confusing the hell out of Paige, so can you please just tell me the big drama?"

Hanna and Mona looked at each other. Hanna started fidgeting with the ends of Caleb's shirtsleeves. "Well... remember Alison DiLaurentis from freshman year?"

Caleb exhaled sharply. "Who doesn't? I was glad to see the back of that girl."

"She's kind of coming back."

"Kind of?"

"Well no, she's really coming back."

Caleb pulled his shirtsleeves out of Hanna's reach.

* * *

At the Harris Aquatic Centre, Emily Fields touched the wall after doing countless lengths of the backstroke, her weakest stroke. The need to focus on something she struggled with meant that she could stop thinking about Alison for a moment.

Alison. Emily sounded out the name in her head, simulating the shapes she would make with her mouth. It was like releasing a cloud after pulling a thick hardcover from a dusty shelf. She thought about Alison during sophomore year, but towards the end of the year, those thoughts became fleeting, disappearing almost completely over the summer.

Emily noticed herself taking extra effort to glide through the pool. Her arms were out of sync. She paused in the middle of a stroke and started treading water.

She realised how sore her muscles were. She swam slowly to the edge of the pool and pulled herself up. As she towelled off, Emily heard her phone ringing. She fished for it inside her gym bag.

"Hey," she spoke into the phone. "Sorry for not picking up. I was in the pool. No, not training, I just needed a swim." Emily pulled her swimming cap off and shook her hair out with her fingers. She rubbed the skin where the cap's elastic stuck to her forehead. "You want to come over? You know we're not allowed to have visitors past curfew."

Emily heard a noise behind her. "Hey, sorry, I have to go," she said. "I miss you too." She sighed heavily. "Yeah, fine, sneak over, I'm sure Hanna won't mind." She ended the call and turned around.

"I didn't know someone was in here. I was just checking this place out." A brunette Emily's height was standing by the doorway.

Emily smiled at her. "No, it's okay, I was just leaving," she said.

"Wait, so is this place always open?" the girl asked.

"It's open from six-thirty in the morning until ten in the evening," Emily told her. "The swim team trains for two mornings and an afternoon, sometimes on weekends if a big meet is coming up, and sometimes meets are held here, but otherwise it's free to use, as long as you're not doing it to play hooky."

"Great, thanks." The girl grinned. "Hey, you shouldn't really be implying that I shouldn't play hooky. Sounds like you're having a sleepover tonight," she said.

Emily blushed. "You heard all that?" she asked.

"Pretty much," said the girl. "It must be tough, having your boyfriend study someplace else."

"Well, that was actually my girlfriend," said Emily.

The brunette's eyes widened. "Girlfriend?"

Emily found her facial expression hard to read. "Did I weird you out?" she asked.

The girl shook her head. "No, definitely not, please don't think I'm some big homophobe or something," she said. "I'm just thinking of how much easier it would be to sneak her in past curfew."

Emily smiled. "You got anyone special you want to sneak in?"

"No, not at the moment," said the girl. She put her hands in her jean pockets. "I better be off. Thanks for the telling me about the opening hours and everything." She turned around and started walking towards the doors.

"Hey," Emily called out.

The brunette turned around again. "What's up?"

"You should really know better to wear Huskies merchandise around here," said Emily.

The other girl laughed. "Trust me, I've been told."


	3. Folie Stimulanée

**Author's Note: **Wow, I'm truly overwhelmed with all the positive feedback that I've received on the first two chapters. It's inspired me to write more! I do intend to update regularly, maybe slowing down over the Christmas/New Year's period, but I will try churn out a chapter or two every week. Also, special thanks to my wonderful girlfriend for being a great beta reader/storyline sounding board.

* * *

A petite blonde girl skipped down the third floor hallway of Thompson Hall. She hummed a song as she read the names on the whiteboard, until she stopped at a colourful, elaborately decorated whiteboard. She raised her fist and knocked loudly. No one answered. After all, it was eight o'clock in the morning and there were no classes, so most people were still sleeping in. But the blonde wouldn't have any of it. She knocked again. And again.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" a muffled voice from behind the door said. The doorknob turned and the door swung open, revealing a very annoyed Hanna.

Hanna waited for her eyes to focus on the girl standing in front of her. "Alison?" she asked.

"Hanna! So great to see you!" Alison DiLaurentis threw her arms around Hanna's neck. She let go almost as quickly. "Is Em awake?" she asked, stepping inside the room.

"Alison, I don't think now is such a good time," said Hanna, closing the door behind her.

"Why not?" asked Alison. She walked over to Emily's bed and poked at the sleeping body underneath the sheets.

"What the heck?" the girl in bed shrieked as she jolted up.

Alison examined the girl's curly light blonde hair, the back of it flattened from where she was sleeping. "You're not Emily," she said.

Emily sat up and regarded Alison in shock. "Ali?" She rubbed her eyes, hoping that she was hallucinating or dreaming.

"Em!" Alison grinned. "I didn't know you had a guest."

"Yeah, no one knows I have a guest," said Emily quickly.

"Well, are you going to introduce us?" Alison put a hand on her hip.

After taking a deep breath, she placed her hand on the arm of the girl next to her. "Ali, this is Samara, my girlfriend."

Alison's eyes widened. "Oh, Emily, you never said anything!" she exclaimed. She looked at Samara. "Hey, I'm so sorry for waking you up. It's really nice to meet you. You're so pretty. Em's a lucky girl," she said to her.

Samara self-consciously rearranged her hair. "Thanks, that's really nice of you to say. For the record, Emily never said anything about you either," she said amiably, like Alison hadn't just barged in the bedroom to give her an unpleasant wake up call.

"Didn't Emily tell you?" Alison made eye contact with Emily. "We have a history, don't we, Em?"

Emily started fidgeting under Alison's stare.

Hanna spoke up, "Ali, we gotta get ready for orientation. How about we catch up later?"

Alison turned around to face Hanna. "That sounds good," she said with a sickly sweet smile. "We definitely have a lot of catching up to do. I'll see you girls later!" On that perky note, she walked to the door and left.

* * *

Wednesday morning was the official start of classes for the students of Rosewood Prep. Because the school put extra emphasis on the smart casual dress code for the first day, the campus grounds looked like a setting for the Abercrombie and Fitch summer catalog.

"So you've switched your English class from Honors to AP for good now?" Aria asked Spencer, as they walked to first period AP English Literature, which - thanks to some wrangling with Spencer's adviser - they shared together.

"That's right." Spencer smiled proudly. "I'm already taking AP Government and AP American History, so what's another AP class?" She swirled the coffee in her thermos before drinking it. People may say that Spencer was addicted to coffee, but really, she was addicted to working. Coffee was just an auxiliary drug. It was only seven-fifteen and she was on a caffeine buzz already, which was essential if she had to cope with the workload of three Honors classes, three AP classes, one elective and tennis.

They walked into the classroom and took seats in the second row. Close enough to show motivation but still far away enough for unpleasant situations, such as the teacher being a spitter or having body odor.

"By the way, did Hanna tell you about what Alison did?" Spencer asked in a low voice.

"Yeah, but that's just so typical of her to do. Poor Emily though," said Aria.

Spencer opened her mouth to respond, but an attractive young guy entered the room. He was dressed in a light blue shirt tucked into black jeans with black shoes, and had a leather satchel over one shoulder. "Good morning everyone, and welcome to AP English Literature - possibly the best class in this school," he said. He picked up the chalk and wrote his name on the board. "I'm Mr Fitz and I will be your teacher."

The room gasped collectively. Spencer's hand shot up. "Is this a prank?" she asked.

"Unfortunately not. You're stuck with me for the year." He smiled at Spencer. "I could even go as far to say as you're the one playing a prank on me. I was given a list of names and ID photos a week ago, so I could familiarise myself with my students. Your name wasn't on it. So give it up."

"I'm certain that I'm in this class. I got my dean to transfer me over and everything," said Spencer hotly.

Mr Fitz, or whoever he was, laughed. "Miss Hastings, right? Calm down. I got an email about it yesterday afternoon. They updated the class list, so you're not going to be slipping under the radar or anything like that," he told her. He noticed her scowl. "All right, Miss Hastings, if you're still not convinced, I'm going to tell the class a bit more about myself: I'm twenty-three, I have a degree in comparative literature from Lafayette, and I'm doing the first year of my masters at Hollis. Since Hollis is a small college that doesn't require many teaching assistants, my thesis supervisor worked out a deal with the Rosewood Prep board to have me teach here. Satisfied?"

Spencer nodded.

"All right. Let's get started," said Mr Fitz with a smile. After taking attendance, he unlocked the cupboard at the side of the room and took out a pile of books. "If you had a look at the syllabus that was emailed to you, we are going to spend the first eight weeks studying the novel Anna Karenina, by the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy." He handed the copies out to everyone.

"We've only got twenty minutes left, so I'm going to do something that you might really hate." He paused. "I want you to read as much as you can in silence," the class groaned, but Mr Fitz raised his hand for silence before continuing, "but use a pencil to underline any words, figurative language, turns of phrases that have caught your eye, and we'll discuss them next time."

As everyone put their stuff away when the bell rang, Mr Fitz called out, "Miss Aria Montgomery?"

Aria looked up from fixing the clasps on her bag. "Yes?"

"Please remain behind after class. I want to have a word with you," he said.

Spencer gave Aria a look. "He didn't catch me texting, I swear," muttered Aria.

When the class, including Spencer, had left the room, Mr Fitz pulled something out of his satchel and approached Aria. "Don't worry, Miss Montgomery, you're not in trouble," he said. He handed her a programme for an art exhibition: "Pennsylvania's Raw Talent". It ran over the summer, and featured the works of a select group of high school students, including Aria. "I thought your name sounded familiar."

Aria opened the programme. Someone, presumably Mr Fitz, had scribbled notes on the margins. She reached the page where her painting was featured. He had underlined the title of her piece and circled the thumbnail.

"I wrote an article in a magazine about the exhibit. I was really intrigued by your painting, so it featured prominently in the article," he told Aria.

Aria was suddenly curious about what Mr Fitz had to say about her work. "Have you got a copy of the article?" she asked.

"Not on me at the moment, sorry," said Mr Fitz. "But it's available online. Just Google my name and the name of the exhibition, and it should show up."

"So I type Mr Fitz on the search bar?" asked Aria. "That should totally narrow it down, right?"

Mr Fitz's cheeks coloured a little. "My full name is Ezra Fitz," he said.

"That's a nice name," said Aria. "I'll look it up tonight." She waved the programme. "Do you want this back?" she asked him.

"No, you can keep it," said Mr Fitz.

Aria put the programme in her bag. "Well, I better go to my next class now," she said.

"All right," said Mr Fitz. He took a deep breath before saying, "Miss Montgomery, you are remarkably talented. If your work in this class is as insightful as your art, I think we are going to have a very good year."

"Well," Aria paused, "thanks, I guess." She noticed Mr Fitz staring at her and started feeling flustered. She swallowed. "I have class," she said, jerking her thumb over by the door. "I'll see you next lesson."

Once outside, Aria took a deep breath. She admitted to herself that there were some reasonably attractive teachers at Rosewood. However, none of them came close to Mr Fitz. He was young, educated, intellectual and... sexy.

* * *

Paige felt the need to unwind after her first day of classes at Rosewood, so after a snack, she put on her swimming gear, grabbed a towel and head off to the aquatic centre. She liked sequences and a logical order to things. That was why she loved swimming.

Take the butterfly stroke. Once she dove into the water, it was five kicks before she pulled herself above the water to take a breath. After that, it would be three kicks before she took a breath again. If she didn't time it precisely, she would slow down. If she didn't focus and ended up getting the pattern jumbled, then she might as well lose the race - and that was not a habit Paige wanted to get accustomed to.

She reached the end of the pool, did a flip turn, then five kicks. She could feel the burn in her hips and torso as she propelled herself through the water. When she reached the other side, she turned again, and did another length, then another. Paige righted herself up in the water, holding onto the lane divider with one hand.

Someone behind her did a slow clap. She lifted her goggles and turned around to see who it was. It was the girl from the last time she was in the aquatic centre, who had olive skin and long, black hair. "Wow, I've never seen anybody swim the butterfly like that, and I've seen videos of myself," she said, amazed but smug at the same time.

Paige lifted herself out of the pool and grabbed her towel from the bench next to Emily. "I guess I should take that as a compliment - unless your butterfly is really bad," she said. "My name is Paige, by the way. Paige McCullers."

"I'm Emily Fields. Please tell me you're trying out for the swim team."

"I have to. It's a formality, but I'm on a sports scholarship," said Paige.

"Awesome!" said Emily enthusiastically. "We could use someone like you."

"You're Hanna's friend, right? I've seen you two walk around together," said Paige.

"Yeah, and I'm her roommate as well," said Emily. "You know Hanna?"

"I'm friends with Caleb, yeah. She's cool." Paige wrapped the towel around her chest. "Hey, her and Mona have been a bit jumpy lately. Apparently it has something to do with that girl who came back, Alison?"

"Yeah, we didn't really have a good past with Alison during freshman year. She messed with a bunch of us, and smiled while she did it," Emily said, frowning. "She used to be Mona's roommate."

Paige laughed. "It makes sense now," she said. "Is that why she's somewhat a nervous wreck around me?"

"Well, Mona is more nervous than most, but yes, probably," replied Emily.

"So, what brings you to the aquatic centre? Are you going for a swim?"

Emily took her loose t-shirt off and running shorts off, revealing a swimsuit. "Yeah, I need to blow some steam off." She paused. "Hey, Paige, are you up for a race?"

Paige looked intrigued. "Yeah? What stroke?"

"Butterfly. Hundred metres," said Emily. She pulled a cap and goggles out of her shorts pocket and started putting them on.

Paige dropped her towel and put her goggles back on. "You're on, Fields," she said.

"Loser buys the winner coffee in town on the weekend."

"Deal."

The two girls stepped onto adjacent diving mounts. After a count of three, they dived into the water at the same time.

* * *

Alison was checking her emails on her laptop when her roommate, Jenna Marshall, entered the room. She remembered that Spencer used to say that she and Jenna were twins, born of the same devil spawn.

"Hey Jenna," she called out, "have you seen Emily's new girlfriend?"

Jenna was sitting on her bed, flipping through a magazine. "Emily Fields?"

"Yeah, do you know of any other gay Emilys at this school?" asked Alison.

"Wouldn't you like to find out," said Jenna wryly. "But yes, I've seen her. Her name's Samara or something. She dropped Emily off on sign in day. Apparently Emily's parents were away."

Alison felt an itching curiosity. "What do you mean 'she dropped Emily off'?" she asked.

Jenna shook her head. "Samara goes to Sheridan Prep."

"Right," drawled Alison. "Jenna, I know we haven't really gotten on during freshman year, but I have a feeling we'll work well together this year," she said sweetly.

The other girl put her magazine down. "What do you want, DiLaurentis?" she asked.

There was a glint in Alison's eye. "I need you to help me to make a case against Emily Fields on the Disciplinary Committee," she said.


	4. Exposition

**Author's Note**: Once again, thanks for the positive responses. I look forward to thinking up of new plotlines whenever I see new reviews/follows/favorites I'm on my summer break at the moment, so yes, I have been writing and posting like a machine. I've decided that after this chapter, I will update the story strictly **once a week**, and it's most likely going to be more than one chapter at a time - it just depends how many I've finished. So the next chapter(s) will be uploaded** next Thursday**! Hope you're enjoying the story so far :)

* * *

The Rosewood township and surrounding residential area separated the Rosewood Prep campus from the Sheridan Prep campus. Emily took the bus there on Saturday afternoon to spend time with Samara. The two of them had been dating since after Thanksgiving break in sophomore year. Emily thought that Samara was an interesting person. She had a sunny charm, but also a feisty passion.

Emily lay on top of Samara in her bedroom. Samara's fingertips were slowly sliding underneath the hem of Emily's tank top while they kissed. When they made contact with skin, Emily made a little moan and broke the kiss, but rested her forehead against Samara's. "I love that you have a single room," she said breathily, smiling.

Samara's other hand cupped Emily's cheek. "I know you do," she said. "No risk of roommates letting crazy girls in." She pulled Emily in for more kissing.

Emily backed away. "You think Ali is crazy?" she asked. She rolled off Samara and lay her head on the other girl's chest instead, with an arm draped around her torso.

"So you two do have history," said Samara, with a hint of triumph in her voice.

"Have you ever had an obsessive crush on a straight girl before?" Emily asked Samara.

"Of course. Show me a lesbian who hasn't, and I'll show you a liar."

"My obsessive straight girl crush was on Alison," Emily told her. "She knew it so she decided to have a little fun with it. She'd kiss me, but say it was an innocent kiss. A couple of times, we even managed to get into the aquatic centre past closing hours and she'd skinny dip. She led me on only to let me down. It's not really a history. She's just making trouble."

"How are you doing with her back at school?" asked Samara.

"We're not in the same classes and she lives on a different floor, so I avoid her as much as possible and it's not too difficult," said Emily.

"I could deck her for you," said Samara. "Defend your honor and everything."

Emily reached up to kiss Samara. "Sure, you can," she said. "You're cute." She sat up and checked the time on her phone. "Crap, it's already four o'clock? I have to meet Paige in town at four-thirty."

"Paige?"

"She's new, on a sports scholarship for swimming. We raced each other in the pool last week for fun. I said that loser buys the winner coffee," explained Emily. She looked down, then looked up again. "I'm buying her coffee today."

Samara's mouth dropped open. "Wait," she said. "You're telling me that this new girl beat you at swimming? You're the best swimmer in Rosewood!"

Emily felt embarrassed. "To be fair, I'm the fastest freestyle swimmer in Rosewood, and I challenged her to a race in butterfly," she said.

"I thought your butterfly was pretty good!"

"Maybe hers was better."

Samara laughed, then wrapped her arms around Emily. "Oh, my poor little Emily, finally getting a taste of her own medicine," she cooed. She kissed Emily's temple. "Just be glad that Paige is swimming on your team."

* * *

"So, what do you think?" asked Caleb. He had been showing Paige around the Rosewood township for about an hour, after he met Hanna for lunch.

"It's nice, but there could be about twenty different places that would look like it," said Paige.

"More like twenty thousand. I keep forgetting that you're from a college town," said Caleb. "This won't be all fascinating to you."

"Is it fascinating to you?"

"Well, despite appearances and rumours, hemp stores aren't really my thing."

"What does Noel Kahn have against you?"

Caleb started playing with a small hole in his jeans. "It started when I got into varsity wrestling in tenth grade, and he didn't move up from JV," he explained. "His dad even came to the school and everything. Neither of them were happy about a scholarship kid getting into varsity with only over a year's experience of wrestling."

"Because wrestling is totally an old money thing, right?" Paige laughed.

"Noel's just a drama queen," said Caleb. "Anyway, we're both in varsity now, only I have a better shot at captain than he does, because I've been on the team longer. And I have a better attitude. And musculature."

Paige lightly punched Caleb in the arm. "Watch that ego of yours, Rivers," she said, imitating Noel's deep voice. As Caleb rubbed his arm in mock pain, Paige asked him, "Do you think you have a shot at a college scholarship?"

"Coach said I have a chance of getting scouted in the next couple of years, but," he hesitated, "I don't know if I want to keep wrestling throughout college. I mean, it would be nice not to worry about paying for college. But wrestling's not really my passion in life."

"Fair enough," said Paige. "What's your passion in life?"

"Anything that involves the word 'software'," said Caleb.

"Oh, you're like Mona then. A geek!" teased Paige.

"Hey, software is the way of the future. If we make good software, we make a better world."

"Sorry, what was that? I don't speak in binary," retorted Paige.

Caleb's face twisted into an exaggerated look of agony. "You are a terrible, terrible person."

Paige looked at the time on her watch. "Hey Caleb, do you know where the Rear Window Brew is?" she asked. "I have to meet Emily there in like, five minutes."

"It's around the corner," he replied, pointing in the general direction. "And I'm guessing you and Emily know each other from swimming?"

Paige nodded. "Yeah, I kind of beat her at butterfly a couple of days ago," she said.

"This is Emily Fields we're talking about, right? You're faster than Emily Fields?"

"At butterfly," said Paige. "She owes me coffee."

Caleb howled and clapped his hands. "Oh, that is amazing! Emily doesn't lose to just anyone. How did you manage that?" he asked.

"She saw me swimming in the aquatic centre after class and challenged me to a race," said Paige. "She put me up to it." She shifted impatiently. "Caleb, I gotta go, I don't want her to forfeit the coffee on account of tardiness."

"Wait, wait," said Caleb. "You have to get a hug for that." He wrapped his arms around Paige. "Beating Emily Fields! God, I never thought we'd ever hear that news." He released her. "Am I allowed to tease Emily about it?"

"I don't think that's up to me, Caleb," Paige said, amused. "I'll see you later." With a wave, she walked off to the direction of the Rear Window Brew.

* * *

Alison emerged from a shop selling scented candles when she saw Caleb hugging a girl who wasn't Hanna. She was almost as tall as Caleb, with straight brown hair. Alison raised an eyebrow. She had questions to ask, but she wanted to make sure that Hanna would want answers to those questions too.

* * *

Emily was waiting in line at the counter when Paige entered the Rear Window Brew. Emily waved the other girl over. "Hey," she said. "The Brew's always busy on a Saturday so I decided to get in line while waiting for you. What do you want?"

Paige squinted at the menu. "Mocha latte, I suppose," she said. "I don't know. What's good?"

Emily smiled. "I was going to order a mocha latte too," she admitted. She ordered their drinks and they found a seat by the window.

"Everyone around here seems to think you're a hotshot swimmer," said Paige.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, I told people that you lost a race to me and they're pretty shocked about that."

"What? You told people?" Emily asked, her eyes wide.

"Chill, I only told Caleb," said Paige. "You're still great though. That race was close."

"Thanks," said Emily. Their drinks arrived. She took a sip from her cup, and Paige followed suit.

"Wow, this is really good," said Paige. She got a bit of foam on her lip.

Emily laughed. "You have some milk over there," she told Paige, pointing at her mouth. "Spencer thinks that a mocha latte is an affront to coffee, but Spencer's not here... so, I'm a 'hotshot', huh?"

"Is that a problem?" asked Paige, after dabbing her mouth with a napkin.

Emily shook her head. "No, it's just that my dad calls me that," she said. "He's an officer in the army," she explained. "I live on a base in Texas with my parents during the holidays. It's just my mom there now, though. My dad's in Afghanistan."

"That's real brave of him," said Paige. "You must miss him a lot."

"Yeah, so much. He's my biggest fan," said Emily.

"I get it. My dad's my biggest fan too. It's so weird that he can't come to every swim meet now that I'm in Pennsylvania and he's in Connecticut," said Paige.

"What does your dad do?"

"He's the water polo coach at UConn," said Paige.

"Wait, your dad is Nick McCullers? The assistant coach for the national water polo team?"

Paige nodded proudly. "That's the one. He'd take me to training with him often when I was little. I practically knew how to swim before I learnt how to walk," she told Emily.

"Why swimming though, and not water polo?" asked Emily.

"I just find racing more satisfying," said Paige. "Do your parents know you're gay?"

"Yeah, they found out during freshman year, when I started dating my first girlfriend," said Emily. "I wasn't ready for them to find out, but Alison got to them first."

"Sounds like she did a good job of messing people's lives up," said Paige. "What happened to your first girlfriend?"

"She had really conservative Christian parents. Her dad was a pastor in Louisiana. Alison got to them too. They took her out of Rosewood and I never saw her again," said Emily.

"That really sucks," said Paige. "But are you happy with your girlfriend now?"

"Samara? Yeah, totally. She goes to Sheridan Prep across town so I don't see her that often."

Paige smirked. "Except for that time she slept over," she said.

Emily looked down shyly. "No, we don't talk about that," she said jokingly. She looked up again. "Can I tell you something, Paige?"

"Sure."

"I'm scared that now Ali's back, then I won't be able to have peace in any relationship I have every again. I've been with Samara for almost a year, but I know Ali's going to do everything she can to ruin that," said Emily.

"Why would anyone do that?" asked Paige.

"Because it's all just a game to her. She's messed with all of my friends," said Emily. Her phone beeped. She pulled it out of her jacket pocket. It was a text message from Spencer: "Where are you now?"

"Who's that?"

"Just Spencer," said Emily. She replied to the text and put the phone back in her pocket.

"Spencer Hastings, right? She's in a couple of my classes," said Paige. "She's rather intense."

"That's Spencer for you. She's an overachiever, but she's a great friend."

"Emily!" Three girls burst through the doors of the Rear Window Brew. It was Spencer, with Aria and Hanna in tow. Spencer was waving her phone indignantly as she walked over to their table.

"Emily, I got an email from the DC adviser," said Spencer. "Someone told her that you had Samara in your room on Monday night, and she slept there. You know that's a serious breach of school rules, and you may have to face the committee."

"What?"

"I need you to be honest with me. Was she there or not?"

Emily looked at Paige, then at Hanna.

"Emily," said Spencer.

"Yes, she was," sighed Emily. "Do you know who tipped them off?"

"Jenna Marshall," replied Hanna.

Emily was confused. "What does she have to do with anything?"

"She's Alison's roommate, so Alison probably told her," said Hanna.

Spencer looked at Emily and Hanna. "We're screwed."


	5. Stood Down

**Author's Note: **Thank you for the reviews, the follows and the favourites. I am enjoying writing this fic, and the feedback just adds to the experience and the inspiration :) I've been busy over the weekend and the past couple of days so I could only upload one chapter, but I have started writing the next one so there may be multiple chapters next week! Also, I live in New Zealand so when I said I would be uploading on Thursdays, that's probably Wednesday afternoon/evening for many of you. I hope you enjoy this chapter! :)

* * *

"If they manage to find me guilty, what's the worst they can do?" Emily asked Spencer. The four friends had left the Brew to regroup in Spencer and Aria's room at Thompson Hall. Emily and Hanna sat on Spencer's bed, Aria sat by her desk and Spencer was pacing.

"You are guilty, Em," said Spencer.

"Alison's got nothing but an eyewitness account and a bad reputation," said Aria. "Even if she got Jenna to snitch on Emily, all the evidence has to come from Alison."

"Aria's got a point," said Emily. "So, what's the worst punishment they can give me, Spence?"

"They may ban you from swimming in the first couple of swim meets."

"What? They can't do that!"

"If you are on a school team, you know that you have to be extra disciplined. The DC can tell your coach to refuse participation as consequences for breaking the rules," said Spencer.

"Why would they do that? Emily is the best swimmer on that team," said Hanna.

Spencer nodded. "Yes, she is, so they may make an example of her," she stated. Spencer turned to Emily. "Look, Em, if you admit to being guilty, you miss two meets, tops, and it's early in the season. There won't be any scouts. It's not going to damage your prospects."

"They can't know that I'm guilty. I don't want to be made an example of," said Emily, folding her arms over her chest. She and Spencer engaged in a staring showdown, leading to an uncomfortable silence.

"Does anyone here have dirt on Alison?" asked Aria.

Spencer shifted nervously. "I do," she said quietly.

Hanna leaned forward from where she was seated. "Well, tell us," she urged.

Spencer flopped down on Aria's bed next to the other two girls. "It's about the Jenna thing."

"Okay, now you really have to tell us," said Hanna. "Come on," she prompted.

Spencer took a deep breath. "Alison was the one who jounced the plank that Jenna was sitting on that night of the theatre party," she said.

The three girls gasped in unison. "How do you know this?" asked Emily.

"Alison and I wanted to go for a walk around backstage, while everyone else was in the theatre. We found Jenna sitting on top of the rafters, where the lighting people would sit during a show. We knew she had an important dance show coming up, but Ali thought that Jenna was up herself," explained Spencer. "So she went over there and rocked the rafters hard enough that Jenna lost her balance and fell."

"Jenna said she could have been admitted to Juilliard's high school summer dance program if she hadn't hurt herself and done the show," said Emily. She felt slightly upset, as she knew how an injury could be career-damaging. "She had broken ribs, a broken leg and a sprained wrist! Why didn't you own up sooner?"

Spencer swallowed. "Ali told me not to tell or she'll spill my own secrets," she said.

"And what is that secret?" asked Emily.

"It doesn't matter. Not the point," Spencer said quickly.

"Well, are you going to confront Ali about it to get her and Jenna to back off?" asked Hanna.

Spencer chewed on her bottom lip. "I don't know, guys..."

"Spence, Ali tried to frame us for the Jenna thing, and she almost succeeded. We thought she was just stirring the pot then, but now we know that she was trying to get us to take the fall for something she did. It's not right," said Hanna.

"I have an idea," said Aria. "Tell Jenna about it and maybe she'll turn on Alison."

Emily hesitated. "That's too underhanded. It's too much like what Alison would do, and we don't want to stoop to her level," she said. "I think that one of us should confront Alison about what she did to Jenna, scare her enough to ask Jenna to retract what she said to the DC."

"I'll confront her," said Spencer. "I can't let her know that I told you guys about what really happened about the Jenna thing. But I can't do it right away. If they back off without even going through the formal questioning process through the DC, it'll look too shady because I'm on the DC and I'm Emily's friend."

"So what does I do first?" asked Emily.

"Go through the formal questioning process first," said Spencer. "Don't confirm or deny anything, don't let them break you. They'll let you go and bring Jenna in, and then Alison. This is because they will get frustrated because you're not giving them anything to go on, so they'll check the witness stories so they can crack you with during the second round of questioning. I'll be sitting in the room when Jenna and Ali get questioned. I'll confront Ali afterwards, then if that goes well, there shouldn't be a second round."

"Sounds like a plan," said Aria.

"God, guys, we haven't even been here a week and we're already getting in trouble," said Hanna.

"It's Ali," said Spencer. "We should have seen it coming."

* * *

Hanna sat in her third period History class, waiting for the teacher to get ready by playing a game discreetly on her cellphone. The seat next to her was empty, until it was filled by a girl with blonde hair. "Hi Hanna!" Alison greeted her brightly.

"Ali," said Hanna, instinctively tucking her phone under the cover of her binder. "Hey."

"How's it going?" asked Alison. "We never did get the chance to catch up."

"Maybe this upcoming weekend," Hanna said without enthusiasm.

Alison smiled at her, the same sickly sweet smile. "I'll find myself a cute boy so we can maybe double date with you and Caleb? He's your boyfriend now, right?" she suggested.

"Yeah, he is," replied Hanna.

The other girl leaned forward conspiratorially. "I always see him around with that new girl, Paige. You know, Mona's new roommate. They seem to have a good time together," she said ambiguously.

Hanna rolled her eyes. "They're good friends. Besides, Caleb knows his boundaries."

Alison pursed her lips. "Okay, whatever, but are you sure that Paige knows hers?" she asked. And then she left Hanna to think about that as their History teacher asked for silence.

* * *

On the way to meeting her friends at their usual library table, Emily spotted Paige in the corner of the non-fiction section, earphones in, typing on her laptop. She walked over to her and tugged lightly on the earphones. Paige looked up and smiled. "Hey!" she said.

"Hey Paige," said Emily. "Sorry for bailing early last Saturday. Stuff was just going down."

"Yeah, it sounded real intense. Hope you get it all sorted out," said Paige, waving it off. "Don't worry about it, Emily. At least you got me that coffee you promised."

Emily laughed. "What are you up to?" she asked.

"Writing this practice essay that needs to be handed in soon. It's frustrating me and I really want to go for a swim right now but I gotta do this," replied Paige.

"Well, I shouldn't keep you from the pool any longer. I'm gonna go sit with my friends. Catch you later?" said Emily.

"Sure." Paige smirked. "Maybe we'll even run into each other and you'll lose to me at freestyle."

"Don't taunt me, McCullers," said Emily, before walking off to where her friends are.

* * *

Hanna watched Emily walk over to their table. As Emily got her books out, she asked, "Hey Em, what do you know about Paige McCullers?" she asked. "I just saw you guys talking."

"She's a swimmer from Connecticut on scholarship. She's pretty cool," said Emily. "And she faster than me at butterfly." She shrugged. "That's about it, really."

Spencer looked up from her pre-calc homework. "Paige McCullers? She has AP English and AP Government with me. She's reasonably smart," she commented. The other three rolled their eyes at "reasonably".

"I don't know about that, Spence, she schooled you pretty hard over Tolstoy the other day," said Aria, her eyes not leaving her laptop screen.

Hanna flapped her hands as Spencer glared at Aria. "Well, do you know if she's into Caleb?"

"What? Why do you think that?" asked Emily, surprised.

"Well, she's new, they seem pretty tight..." Hanna bit her lip. "And Caleb's, you know, hot."

"I think they're just friends," said Aria. "Caleb's a really nice guy. He's all quiet but people do warm to him. You know how he is."

Hanna frowned. "I don't know how Paige is, though."

"Maybe you should ask Caleb," suggested Emily. "It's not right to assume things, especially if it's highly likely that Paige is harmless."

Spencer impatiently rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Hanna, it seems like the only thing that we should be worried about is that Paige swims faster than Emily. Now, we all need to study, and we made this date to study, so let's study," she said.

Aria chuckled. "Well, she swims faster than Emily and she schooled you on Tolstoy."

"Why is me losing a casual race to Paige suddenly a thing now?" asked Emily.

Her question was left unanswered as Spencer turned to Aria. "Aria, I'm fairly sure that 'schooled' isn't a real word, and if it is, it's a clumsy word to be using," she told her. "Now, do we have any more boy or girl dramas or can we get back to studying?" she snapped.

"Are you okay, Spence?" asked Emily.

Spencer shook her head. "Sorry," she said. "I'm just a bit nervous about your questioning at the DC, that's all."

"Spencer, it's me that's going to get interrogated, not you. It'll be fine," said Emily. She sounded as if she was reassuring herself as well. "I'll just go along with what we planned and, crossed fingers, maybe we can get Ali to just drop it."

"When are you seeing the DC, Emily?" asked Hanna.

"Tomorrow at lunch time," replied Emily. "As for Caleb and Paige, I don't know how to answer that question. I don't know Paige very well. I really think it's better to ask Caleb."

* * *

Spencer waited for Emily outside the door of the DC room. After around twenty minutes, Emily emerged, looking anxious.

"That was fast," said Spencer, in a low voice. "Did they manage to crack you?"

"Spencer!" Emily shook her head. "At least, I didn't think they did," she said. They started walking towards the science block.

"They're questioning Jenna, then Ali after last period," said Spencer. "I'll talk to Ali afterwards."

"This has to work, Spencer," said Emily. She furrowed her brow. "I can't have my parents knowing that I was breaking the rules. They love rules!"

"Em, don't worry, I'll sort it out with Ali, okay?" Spencer patted Emily's shoulder.

"Call us right away, all right?" asked Emily.

"Yeah, of course, Em," said Spencer. She gave her a brief hug. "I have to go. I'll be late for Physics. I'll see you later."

* * *

Hanna sat on Caleb's bed in Barnes Hall during free time after classes. Caleb was next to her on his laptop, playing a game, while Hanna read a book. She watched her dark-haired boyfriend stare intently at the screen, pressing keys aggressively. Hanna closed her book and put it aside.

"Caleb?"

Caleb made a little growling noise. "Hanna, hang on, I'm in the middle of a battle, I'll get back to you," he said.

"Caleb, what do you think of Paige?" Hanna asked anyway.

A sound emanated from Caleb's laptop. "Now you just let me die," he groaned. He waited to respawn, then paused the game. "Sorry, what was your question?"

Hanna rolled her eyes. "I asked you what you thought of Paige."

"McCullers? Yeah, she's cool," said Caleb. "We only have one class together, but we hang out a bit outside of class. What about her?"

"Just curious. Is she dating anyone?"

Caleb shrugged. "Not that I know of. She's the type to keep to herself, you know," he said. He cocked his head to the side. "What's up, Hanna? What's with the questions about Paige?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to ask," said Hanna.

"Do I detect a hint of jealousy?" asked Caleb. He smiled and reached for his girlfriend, holding her close to him.

"I'm not jealous!" Hanna insisted.

He kissed the top of her head. "Oh, yeah you are," he said, laughing. "Paige and I are just friends."

"Does she know that?" asked Hanna.

"Of course. I don't even think she'd be interested. She thinks I'm a geek."

Hanna turned around and played with the ends of Caleb's hair. "You are a geek, though," she said. "I find it kinda hot."

"Really now?" Caleb smirked. "I'm hot?"

"Just pretend I didn't say that," said Hanna. She pushed Caleb away from her, towards his laptop. "Go back to your computer game, you dork."

"If you say so," said Caleb. He restarted his game.

Hanna watched him play, still not entirely convinced about Paige.

* * *

The DC adviser thanked Alison for her responses to the questions. There were two other people in the room during the questioning: the senior prefect and Spencer, the junior prefect. The adviser dismissed the students. The senior prefect gathered his things and rushed out of the room. Spencer decided to pace herself and wait until the adviser had left.

Spencer stood in front of the door to block Alison from leaving. "Ali, we need to talk," she said.

"Sure," said Alison. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Why are you doing this to Emily? She was your best friend in freshman year. Why do you want to get her in trouble? What did she ever do to you?"

"Spence, it upsets me that you think I have malice towards Emily," Alison said in a hurt tone. "I'm just upholding Rosewood Prep's reputation for producing law-abiding citizens. All that crap starts in school, right?"

"I want you to drop this. Forget it ever happened. Emily doesn't need this trouble," said Spencer.

"I can't forget it ever happened if Emily broke the rules," said Alison. "If she wasn't your friend, you wouldn't be this eager for me to forget about it. You'd be right here with me, cheering for her to face consequences. You're all about the rules, Little Miss Perfect Spencer Hastings." Alison smiled. "If only they knew, right?"

Spencer blinked. "If you don't tell Jenna to forget about it, I'll tell the dean, you know. About how you caused the fall that hurt her," she said.

Alison's laugh was loud and mocking. "Would you really?"

"Yeah." Spencer felt a flash of anger at Alison's laughter. "I think your new roommate would really want to hear about it," she taunted.

"Remember our deal, Spencer?" Alison's voice had gone up half an octave. "If you tell anyone about what happened with Jenna, I'm going to tell your sister that you kissed her boyfriend during freshman year."

"Fiancé, actually," Spencer admitted. Feeling bold, she started to bluff. "And I already told them about that, to put the ghosts to rest. I'm not the one that'll lose everything. How does another year in Scotland sound?"

Alison flinched and tried to avoid Spencer's eye.

"When you next see Jenna, call this off," said Spencer. "Or else I'll tell someone about what really happened that night. You have until tomorrow afternoon for the DC to tell Emily that the accusations have been retracted." She stepped aside to let Alison through the door.

Alison walked through the doorway. She stopped and turned around to face Spencer. "Fine, I'll let Emily off, but just this once. But Spencer? Next time I get dirt on one of your posse, they're going down, and I'm taking you with them."

"They were your posse once, and I was too," said Spencer.

"Don't you get it? That's the problem." Alison shrugged. She started walking in the direction of the dorms while humming a song.

* * *

Spencer checked her phone in between first and second period the next day. There was an email from the DC adviser to the class prefects.

The adviser wrote: "Hello everyone, Jenna Marshall has retracted her case against Emily Fields, saying that it was a mistake and there's nothing to be worried about. Since we have gotten insufficient evidence from the initial questioning, I see no reason to pursue this further, as it appears that Miss Fields hasn't committed any breach of the rules. Thank you all for your time."

Spencer grinned. But then her phone beeped again. It was a text from an unknown number. "Your wish is my command, Spencer, but that's your last wish gone. Watch your back. - Alison"


	6. Shark Attack

**Author's Note: **Two chapters for everyone this time around! I'm in the thick of writing the eighth chapter and I hope to get it to you guys by next week, perhaps without the ninth chapter as it is the holidays after all. I am swimming in plot bunnies at the moment, so I hope you are as excited by this story as I am, because stuff is about to get real soon! Happy holidays everybody :)

* * *

Aria read the article that Mr Fitz wrote about the art exhibit. Overall, his comments about the exhibit were glowing, but what he wrote about Aria's painting was ambiguous: "This piece has made me realise that the belief in tikkun olam may be valid after all." What was tikkun olam? Aria thought. She was just about to Google it when the bell rang. Aria closed her laptop and headed off to her AP English class.

In class, Mr Fitz played devil's advocate as the students discussed the themes of Anna Karenina. Aria noted that the longer he had been teaching, the more he had developed a "winning formula" to his daily attire. Gone was the Mr Fitz of button-down collars and dark-wash jeans, and here comes Mr Fitz of shirt, tie and waistcoat.

"Miss Montgomery," Mr Fitz called on her. "Since you look like you've been paying the most attention this lesson, why don't you tell us what you think?"

Aria broke out of her reverie. "Sorry, what was the question? I didn't quite understand it."

"Well, we were discussing about how significant it is that Tolstoy wrote about several different groups of people who are linked to each other, but have all their own issues," said Mr Fitz. "So, what do you think?"

"I think everyone's issues end up affecting everyone else in the end, no matter how seemingly unimportant the connections are. The character's problems explore a different theme in the novel but Tolstoy seems to showcase how there's a ripple effect, like collateral damage, I suppose, when relationships go into conflict," said Aria. "I realise that really didn't answer your question properly... but yes, I think it's significant that Tolstoy explores the lives tons of people with weird names that we're probably all struggling to remember."

Mr Fitz laughter mixed in with the students, except for Spencer, who was shaking her head in protest. Of course she remembered everyone's names. It wasn't that hard.

When class ended, Aria stayed behind. When the last person left the room, she said, "I finally got around to reading that article you wrote on the exhibit."

Mr Fitz folded his arms over his chest. "That only took you a few weeks," he said.

"Sorry," said Aria, fumbling for excuses. "I'm still trying to adjust to the new workload, I haven't really had time to go online for leisure."

Mr Fitz smiled. "Aria," He hesitated. "May I call you that?" Aria nodded. "It's okay. It wasn't homework or anything." He let out a little laugh. "I just thought you'd be interested."

"Oh," said Aria. "I thought I was in trouble."

"You aren't," said Mr Fitz. "What did you think of the article?"

"I thought that you had plenty of nice things to say," said Aria. "I didn't get what you said about my painting though. Something about tikkun olam. What's that?"

"My minor at Lafayette was theology," said Mr Fitz. "It's a Jewish belief that the world is broken, and it's everyone's purpose to put the world back together. I always thought it was strange, if not ambitious." There was a peculiar gleam in his eye. "When I saw your painting, I thought that maybe people are capable of putting the world back together after all."

Aria didn't know what to say. She took a deep breath. "I suppose that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said about my art," she told Mr Fitz. "And the weirdest thing is, it had to come from my English teacher, not my art teacher."

"But I'm not just your English teacher, Aria." Mr Fitz said with a smile.

* * *

After doing a hundred meters of freestyle with her teammates - the final set of laps for the day - Paige pulled herself out of the pool, removed her cap and goggles and started towelling off. "Goddamn, McCullers!" the coach exclaimed, staring at her stopwatch in awe. "You've barely been here five seconds and you're showing the team how it's done."

Emily stood next to Paige, drying her hair with the towel. "How are my times, coach?" she asked.

"Just a hair faster than Paige," replied the coach. "Watch yourself, Em, someone's going to give you a run for your money," she joked.

The two girls looked at each other and laughed. "I suppose Paige and I can have a friendly rivalry," said Emily. "Don't you think so?"

"Yeah, definitely," Paige agreed enthusiastically.

"All right." The coach was grinning. She had always felt that Emily outranked the other swimmers on the team, which was good for the team but not so good for Emily. However, with Paige around, she hoped that the girl would be more motivated. She called out to the rest of the girls. "Shower time, team! I hear tests are coming up in a couple of weeks, and I want B averages, so go back to the dorms and study."

Paige and Emily walked together to the locker rooms, towels wrapped around their chests and caps and goggles in hand. "How was that for a first training?" Paige asked Emily.

"It's only about to get more intense," replied Emily.

"Looking forward to that," said Paige. She opened her locker to retrieve a small bottle of shampoo and a plastic soap case. She noticed Emily staring at her. "I know you're meant to just rinse and all, but I don't like getting back into my clothes when I still smell like chlorine, so I lather up quickly," she explained.

"No, no, it's not that." Emily pulled the same items from her locker as well. "I just thought I was the only one." She placed the bottle on top of the clothes she had prepared. Suddenly, there was a buzzing noise.

"Emily, your locker seems to be vibrating," said Paige.

Emily opened her locker to get her phone. She looked at the screen before answering the call. "Hey Samara," she said, smiling. "What's up?" Pause. "I was at training. First training before the season starts." Pause. "Yeah, I'd love to go for pizza on Thursday." Emily started kneading her forehead. "Oh, Samara, I just remembered, the other girls and I promised Hanna that we'd go to Caleb's wrestling meet that night. You mind if we have dinner earlier then you can come with us?" Pause. "I know sweaty boys aren't your thing, but it'll be fun. Promise." She frowned. "I'll have to talk to you about that. I gotta go jump in the shower. Yeah, yeah, I know. Bye."

"So you're going to play cheerleader for Caleb, huh?" asked Paige.

"No, Hanna is. We're there to make sure she doesn't go overboard, because she has this thing of forgetting that it's high school wrestling, not the WWE," said Emily.

Paige laughed. "Caleb asked me to come watch him too," she said.

Emily swallowed. "I bet it's just to offset the noise Hanna will be making," she told Paige.

"I don't know, I was kind of looking forward to a quiet evening in the aquatic centre." Paige shrugged. "Nothing feels as good as being in the water, you know?"

"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean," said Emily. "You could use a break though. Maybe cheering for the Rosewood Prep wrestling team would relax you."

"Maybe," said Paige. "Hey, am I allowed to ask about what went down with the DC?"

"Of course," said Emily.

"Okay, so what happened with the DC?"

"Jenna took back what she said so I guess my name is cleared."

Paige smiled. "That's great. We really can't afford to have you suspended," she said.

"Wow, Paige, getting into the team spirit already with the use of 'we'. Your old high school must be weeping already," said Emily, grinning.

"What can I say? I'm ready to be a Shark."

* * *

Emily liked her AP Chemistry class because of the company of her lab partner, Toby Cavanaugh. He was a quiet guy who rarely ever smiled or laughed in public, but he was kind and he said the funniest things around Emily.

But on this particular day, Toby was even more taciturn. He was boring a hole into the instructions for the experiment and following them with slow deliberation.

Emily tried to ignore it, thinking that Toby just had a rough week. In the last couple of years, he would usually talk to her about it, but she believed puberty did strange things to people. A third of the way into the experiment, she eventually snapped. "Toby, what's up? Did someone kick your puppy or something?" she asked.

Toby looked up from the instructions. "What? Nothing," he said quietly, then kept on reading.

"That is a sad attempt to burn that piece of paper, if you ask me," said Emily.

Toby looked up again, this time to stare at Emily. He appeared to be thinking of what he was going to say next.

"Talk to me, Toby."

"Emily, I'm sorry," said Toby finally. "About Jenna making up that you had Samara sleep over."

"You don't have to apologise," said Emily.

"I do," Toby insisted. "She's my sister."

"Step-sister," Emily intoned. "You don't have to feel bad on her behalf."

"But I do," said Toby.

"Why?"

Toby pushed his floppy brown hair out of his eyes. "Because I know she's still mad at you guys because she thinks you were the ones who pushed her off the rafters in freshman year," he said.

"Do you think the same?"

Toby shook his head fervently. "Of course not, Emily," he said. "I know you and I kinda know your friends. You'd never do that to Jenna. And Spencer and Jenna are too different to be serious rivals, Hanna is prone to guilt and Aria is just wrapped up in that whole artsy girl thing to even think about it."

Emily raised an eyebrow. "Well, haven't you got them pretty pegged?" She nudged Toby with her elbow. "Why hasn't some girl made you hers yet?"

A smile tugged at the corners of Toby's lips. "They avoid me because I'm too stressed about not flunking chemistry. They heard that I had an annoying and distracting lab partner so they're biding their time," he deadpanned.

* * *

Noel Kahn twisted his opponent's arm behind his back and pinned him to the mat. The referee got down on his knees and counted. When he deemed that there had sufficient time for Noel to have been subduing his opponent, he blew his whistle, raised Noel's arm in the air and declared him the victor. Noel removed his headgear and shook out his sweaty dark brown hair while walking towards the bench.

"Don't let us down, Rivers," he told Caleb, who was bouncing on the balls of his feet, getting pumped for his bout.

Hanna, Spencer and Aria entered the sports center with Emily and Samara following close behind. They were late because Aria had trouble with the curling iron when she was doing Hanna's hair for the meet.

"What I don't understand is why your school mascot is a shark," Samara was saying to Emily. "It's not like you specialise in water sports, and Pennsylvania is landlocked, for crying out loud."

"We started calling our teams the Sharks after one of our alumni won an Olympic medal for diving," said Spencer

"So you named the school mascot in their honour?" asked Samara.

"Kind of, but we named the aquatic center after him, too." Spencer smiled at Samara. "We never recognise full-assed efforts in a half-assed manner at Rosewood Prep."

Hanna spotted Caleb on the side of his mat, listening to instructions from his coach. "Oh, we're just in time!" she said brightly. She led the girls down the side of the floor to find a spectator seat as close to the mat as possible. Her jaw dropped. "Oh my god, what is Paige McCullers doing sitting in my normal seat?" she demanded.

"Well, no one knew it was reserved," said Spencer dryly.

"Not funny, Spencer. What is she even doing here anyway?"

"She told me that Caleb asked her to come," said Emily. She had her arm outstretched to prevent Hanna from suddenly storming off. "Hanna, come on, isn't Caleb allowed to have other friends that happen to be girls?"

"She doesn't seem like she just wants to be friends, to be honest," said Hanna.

Aria tugged on Hanna's wrist. "Come on, Han, the girl probably didn't have a clue that you sat in the front row near those disgusting, grunting boys. I mean, look at you!" She smiled gently at her friend. "A second row seat would be just as good."

"Out of range from the pungent odors too," added Spencer.

Hanna conceded for the moment and allowed her friends to lead her into a second row seat. Meanwhile, Caleb had started his bout, facing off against a stocky blonde guy.

"God, those tights are unflattering," said Samara, cringing at the sight.

Emily squeezed her hand. "They're not meant to be flattering for you to look at," she teased.

Hanna watched Paige, who was leaning forward on her seat in the front row, paying full attention to Caleb's bout. It was apparent that Caleb had an advantage from his opponent from the start, and the bout was over fairly quickly. When the referee declared Caleb the victor, Hanna watched as Paige on her feet to cheer loudly for him.

Aria felt Hanna stand up beside her, and she thought it was just her giving her boyfriend a standing ovation. However, Hanna stormed down the steps of the bleachers and got right in Paige's face. "What the hell are you doing in my seat, you bitch?" she screamed.

"Oh crap." Eyes wide, Aria grabbed Spencer's wrist, who in turn, grabbed Emily's wrist. They ran down to follow Hanna, who was already the subject of most people's attention in the building.

Caleb shook his arm away from the referee and stood in front of Hanna. "Han, what are you doing? What's up?" he asked, bewildered.

"Why did you let her sit in my seat, Caleb? That's my usual seat," said Hanna.

Paige spoke up. "Hey, I got here first, and you weren't here," she said. "I had no idea that you wanted this seat."

"Well, you had every idea that Caleb has a girlfriend, right?" asked Hanna.

"I do," said Paige. "What are you trying to imply?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe you're trying to snatch my boyfriend right from under my nose!"

"Whoa," Caleb cut in. "Hanna, I've told you this before. Paige is just a friend. Why are you so insecure all of a sudden?" he asked. "I thought you trusted me."

"I don't trust her," said Hanna.

"You don't even know her," retorted Caleb.

Paige waved her hands. "Hi guys, I'm kinda right in front of you!"

Someone grabbed Caleb by the shoulder. It was his coach. "Hey Rivers, good job and all, but will you please tell your girlfriends to get outta here so we can get on with the meet?"

Caleb turned back to Hanna. "You better go," he said.

"I'll go too," said Paige. "Well done with the bout anyway, Caleb." She picked up her jacket and made her way to the exit.

Emily reached for Hanna. "Let's go," she said. She gestured for Samara to come down the bleachers as well.

"You'll call me later?" Hanna asked Caleb.

Caleb was already about to head towards the bench. He was facing in Hanna's direction, but he didn't make eye contact with her. "Maybe," he said.

* * *

Emily and Samara sat on a couch in the first floor lounge of Thompson Hall, because it was past room visitation hours, and non-residents were only permitted in the common areas. They were watching a rerun of an old show on the television, with Emily's arm draped casually across Samara's shoulder.

"Sorry about what happened at the wrestling meet," said Emily.

"Yeah, it's okay," said Samara. "I'm almost glad that we pretty much got kicked out. I've never seen that many bulges in my life."

Emily laughed.

"Do you think Hanna's going to be okay?" asked Samara.

"Yeah, Spencer and Aria are probably in our room calming her down," said Emily. She stroked Samara's shoulder absently with her thumb. "Swim season is about to start. Are you coming to my meets?"

Samara smiled. "Of course," she said. "I'll try not to be in too much pain when you kick Sheridan's ass."

"I'll kiss the pain better," said Emily. She used her free hand to turn Samara's face towards her, and gave her a quick kiss that turned into something longer.

"Can I stay over tonight?" asked Samara, in between kisses.

Emily pulled away, frowning. "Sorry, you can't. I almost got in trouble last time you stayed over."

"What do you mean?" asked Samara. Her brow was knitted in concern. "Is everything okay?"

"Alison just got someone to tell the disciplinary committee that I had you over. Remember that time she just barged into the room and you were there?"

"Why aren't you being punished now if it reached DC?"

"Spencer got Ali to drop it," replied Emily.

"Okay, so just get Spencer to do whatever she did if Alison catches us again," suggested Samara.

"Oh, you know I can't ask that of Spencer," said Emily. She sighed when her girlfriend pouted at her. "I'm sorry, Samara. I'll try work something out, like maybe I'll spend a night with you over at Sheridan or something one weekend. It'll be cooler because we'll be alone."

"Okay, whatever," said Samara. She shrugged Emily's arm off her shoulders and started gathering her things. "I think I should go, curfew is approaching. Walk me out?"

* * *

Paige settled in her room for the night, getting under the covers and reading her AP Government textbook. Mona had rushed in earlier to put her laptop away and grab her toiletries, muttering something about the need for a long, hot shower. Paige flipped to the chapter on the jurisdictions of the federal and state governments. She was rubbing her eyes wearily when her phone started ringing. Eager for a break, she sat back and held the phone to her ear.

"Hey Dad, how's it going?"

"Hello Paige. Things have been good. I've been working with my staff to develop an intensive fitness program for the team. It's going to be great," said Nick McCullers cheerfully.

"And how's Mom?"

"She's grading pop quizzes from her fifth grade class at the moment,' her dad replied. There was a pause on his end of the line. "She just told me she'll talk to you after I'm done. She needs a nice break."

Paige smiled. "All right, looking forward to it," she said.

"How's life in Panthers territory?" asked her dad.

"Not as bad as it seems," said Paige, laughing. "I've been told quite a few times to stop wearing anything with Huskies or UConn on it, but the kids here are from other places too, so they're in foreign territory as well."

"Must be dangerous," her dad joked.

"Well, contrary to popular belief, not everything is the Big East."

Paige's dad gasped in mock disbelief. "But the Big East makes the world go 'round!"

"Right."

"How's school and swimming going?"

"Great. I was just doing some reading on AP Government before you called. And training for swimming started this week," said Paige. "It was pretty awesome. They do have a better programme than my old school."

"That's good. Always good to hear you're working hard," said her dad. She could hear his smile on the other end of the line. "By the way, I sent you an email for an extra fitness schedule you may want to try out. It's a less intense version of the regime I put together for the water polo guys, but it should push you. Cardio heavy mostly, to work on stamina. There's nothing worse than losing steam."

"Yeah, I know, Dad," she said.

"I suggest getting a teammate to do it with you. Workouts are always more fun with company. At least that's what it seems like with the Huskies."

"Okay, I'll see if anyone's interested," said Paige. "And I'll look at my emails after I talk to Mom."

"Well, I won't keep you for any longer, I'll pass the phone over right now. Good night, Paige," he said.

"Good night, Dad."


	7. Crossed Wires

Breakfast at Rosewood Prep was the same sort of food each day. There was streaky bacon, hash browns, four varieties of bread in toast form, oatmeal, around six kinds of cereal, a huge basket of fruits and a table exclusively for hot drinks.

Spencer returned to her friends' table clutching an extra large takeaway cup of coffee. Hanna was frowning as she munched on a piece of buttered toast. Spencer followed her line of sight and realised that Hanna was watching Caleb, who was having breakfast with Paige. "Hanna," said Spencer.

Hanna turned to look at her. "What?"

"If only looks could kill..."

"I can't believe him sometimes. He's doing this on purpose," said Hanna.

"It's not like you were nice to him about it. He thinks you don't trust him," said Spencer.

"Well, he's proving me right by sitting with her."

"Oh my god, they're just friends," said Emily, irritated with the drama that has been going on for a few days. "If Samara got all jumpy about how I'm really close with you guys, we wouldn't be together right now. She gets it."

"Samara knows us. We hardly know Paige," said Hanna.

"Here's a wild suggestion," said Emily. "Why not try get to know her?"

"Paige is a new girl and she's probably feeling safe with people who she has something in common with," said Aria. "Caleb's on scholarship like she is. With douches like Noel and bitches like Jenna and Alison around, it's easier for her to befriend people who don't seem like stuck up rich kids."

"Not sure if subtle dig on us, or..." said Spencer.

Paige noticed Hanna and her friends staring at her. She uttered a quick excuse to Caleb, before shoving a final bite of hash brown in her mouth, picking up her plate and leaving. A confused Caleb searched the dining hall until he made eye contact with Hanna. He shook his head, stood up and left.

"Is this whole jealousy thing worth losing your boyfriend over or what?" asked Emily.

Hanna chewed her lip. "I'm gonna talk to him," she said. She stood up and walked briskly after Caleb. "Caleb! Wait up!" she called. When she caught up to him, Caleb stood there with an impatient look on his face. "I'm sorry," she told him. "I'm trying to be more understanding."

"I never would have guessed," said Caleb sarcastically.

"I get it," said Hanna. "She's a scholarship kid, you're a scholarship kid. You guys don't see each other any differently than how the stupid people in this school see you."

"Don't feel sorry for me, Hanna, and don't make assumptions," said Caleb, suddenly angry. "I'm starting to think you're one of those stupid people that you're talking about. Paige and I aren't friends because we're on scholarship. Paige and I are friends because we've looked past that and she's cool to hang out with. Besides, she's new and she could use someone who isn't nasty to her. I thought you would be more open about this, but you're not." He stomped off through the dining hall doors.

* * *

Paige was surprised when Spencer sat next to her in fifth period AP Government. Spencer noticed the look on her face. "I wanted to apologise for what happened at breakfast today," she told Paige.

"Yeah, that's totally cool," said Paige. "I really wanted to be the girl who's given death glares while trying to enjoy her bowl of Lucky Charms. Is that irony or what?"

"I find that Hanna's behaviour is out of character. I don't know what's going on, but yeah, I want you to know that I'm sorry about that," said Spencer.

"All right," said Paige. "I'm just kind of over it, you know? I don't mean to cause any trouble."

"So why do you keep sitting with Caleb? It antagonises Hanna."

Paige rolled her eyes. "I don't care. I've done nothing wrong," she snapped. "If I was sitting elsewhere, it would just give her a false sense of satisfaction because it will seem that her assumptions about me are right." She stared Spencer down.

Spencer looked away.

Paige opened her notebook and wrote the date on top of a fresh page. "For the record, I don't see Caleb that way. I know when a person's taken, and he's not the kind I'd be into anyway," she said, clearly frustrated. "Spencer, can you just tell Hanna to back off? I'm not going to stop being friends with Caleb if that's what she wants. Caleb and Emily are pretty much the only proper friends I have right now, and I feel like no one else will look at me because I'm a homewrecker."

Spencer was taken aback by Paige's outburst. "All right, Paige. I'll see what I can do."

* * *

Emily was heading to the weights room after her last class when she spotted Paige stretching by a case of basketballs. However, Paige wasn't wearing the basketball team's practice attire. Instead, she was wearing a heather gray Rosewood Prep t-shirt and blue basketball shorts.

"Paige! What are you doing here?" she asked.

Paige stopped mid-stretch. "Oh, hey Emily," she said. "I'm on the scrimmage team for girls' basketball. We have pickup games once a week. True to my Husky roots, I suppose. What are you doing here?"

"I'm going for twenty minutes on the rowing machine. Gotta work these arms and shoulders a little harder, you know," replied Emily.

An idea popped into Paige's head. "Hey, my dad sent me this fitness program to supplement swimming," she said. "He told me it would be more fun with a buddy. Do you want to try it out?"

"Do you have it somewhere on paper?" asked Emily. "I wanna have a look at it first."

"Sure," said Paige. "Dad sent it to me on a Word document. I'll send it to your school email after practice?"

"Sounds good to me," said Emily.

Paige grinned. "Well, I gotta go." She jerked a thumb over the direction of the court. "Got some free throws to shoot, some defense to play."

Emily couldn't help grinning back. "Okay. I'll talk to you later," she said.

* * *

"The fact that you haven't scared her off by now means you're losing Caleb." Alison told Hanna.

They were alone on the third-floor lounge of Thompson Hall, with Alison sitting on a different couch so no one would get suspicious if they walked in. She had been talking to Hanna consistently, making her question Caleb's loyalty. She was sure that the new girl meant no harm, but she enjoyed how Hanna got worked up over it.

"What do you think I should do?" asked Hanna.

"You can always give Caleb a taste of his own medicine," suggest Alison.

Hanna looked confused. "What do you mean by that?"

"You can make him jealous. I heard Noel Kahn's up for grabs. Perhaps you can flirt with him a little," said Alison.

"But Noel is so annoying."

"What about his friend, Sean Ackard? He seems sweet, and is totally the opposite of Caleb. Blonde, clean cut, face of an angel."

"So pretty much a Ken doll," said Hanna.

"There's a reason why a billion of those dolls were sold, Hanna," said Alison slyly. "Why not go for the life-sized version?"

"But I love Caleb."

Alison snorted. "Love," she scoffed. "If he doesn't take the time to understand why you're uncomfortable with him being friends with Paige, you should really think about whether he feels the same way."

* * *

After a morning swim practice, Emily approached Paige in the locker room. "I had a look at that fitness program you forwarded to me last night," she told her.

Paige was running a brush through her hair, still damp from the shower. "What do you think?"

"It involves a lot of running that I don't like doing. I'm into water sports for a reason." Emily watched as a look of disappointment crept up on Paige's face. "But I can't let you suffer alone, and I also can't let the new girl one up me in all the other strokes," she continued.

Paige's face brightened again. "So, should we start this weekend? Bright and early at six-thirty?"

Emily nodded. "But I don't think Hanna would like me getting up at that hour. I'd interrupt her beauty sleep trying to find a sports bra," she said.

"Really? I thought Hanna would be a deep sleeper," said Paige.

"No, she's a really light sleeper. She always complains that I sleep talk, so I don't think she'd be happy that I'll be getting dressed at six o'clock on a Saturday."

"I have an idea," said Paige. "Pack a bag of your stuff. I'll ask Mona if she can swap with you and sleep in your room while you stay with me on Friday night." She paused. "That's not against the rules, is it?"

"No, it's not against the rules. When Spencer and Aria had fights in sophomore year, Hanna and I would always volunteer to swap with either one of them. I'll bring it up with Hanna. Mona always had the best pirated movies. They'd make a sleepover out of it."

"And we're going to make a sleepover out of this fitness programme," said Paige, smiling.

Emily smiled back. "Yes, yes we will."

* * *

Hanna entered her room at the end of the day. Emily was sitting at her desk, typing on her laptop, a frown etched on her face. Her typing started speeding up. "Whoa, Em, I'm sure that paper can't be that horrible to you," said Hanna.

Emily stopped typing and turned to look at Hanna. "Please remind me why we need to analyse the foibles of the human condition in literature," she said grumpily. "I want to get into premed. I'd rather look for flaws in human condition in bio class or something, not in a book."

"Hey, I don't know about you, but we don't look at human diagrams in my bio class," said Hanna. "Even looking at plants is stretching it."

"Still, analysing books is overthinking them. Totally takes the fun out of reading," said Emily.

"Well then, take a break," suggested Hanna.

Emily obliged, moving from her desk to her bed. "Oh yeah, I want to ask you something."

"What is it?" asked Hanna.

"Do you mind if Mona and I swap rooms Friday night?"

"I'm confused. Isn't she roommates with Paige?" Hanna's face took on an expression of irritation at her name. "Are you two having a sleepover or something?"

"Sorta. We're going to try out this new fitness program on Saturday morning, and we start at six-thirty so we figured we didn't want to disturb either of our roommates with getting ready," explained Emily. "And you and Mona are friends, so I thought it would be all right if we had a roommate swap once a week."

Hanna thought about it. "Well, is Mona cool with it?" she asked Emily.

"I wouldn't know. Paige is probably asking her right now as we're speaking," replied Emily. "Come on, Hanna. I know what you think of her, but it's not like you're the one having to swap rooms and she's the one coming here."

"Why are you friends with her, Emily?"

"Because she's cool and funny, she's a great athlete and there is no way she is set out to break you and Caleb up. I still have no idea where you got that idea from."

Hanna fidgeted. "I should go shower," she said quickly. "It's been a long day." She walked over to her nightstand and emptied her pockets. Cellphone, room key, lip balm. She gathered some clothes and her toiletries from her closet and left the room.

Emily lay flat on her bed and stretched. Between swimming practices starting up and her teachers amping up the workload, she was getting more and more exhausted every day. It was hard knowing that the only reason she could go to a school like Rosewood Prep is because of her father's salary, but even then, being Lieutenant Colonel was not likely to pay for a college with both an excellent swim program and a hefty endowment. Somehow having her friends around made it easier.

Emily stayed like that for a few minutes, thinking of school and swimming and scouts and scholarships, all these sibilant noises meshing together in her head like white noise, when she heard a loud beep.

It was Hanna's phone alerting for a new text message. Emily ignored it.

It beeped again. And again. And again. Emily knew it wasn't Caleb, Spencer, Aria or even Mona. Hanna had special ringtones for all of them.

Curiosity took over Emily. She crossed the room to have a peek at Hanna's phone. There were four text messages from Alison DiLaurentis.

The first said: "Spotted: Paige McCullers!", followed by a sneaky photograph of Paige sitting in the lounge wearing a Huskies hoodie and pajama bottoms, legs curled up to her chest.

The third message said: "She's watching TV without a care in the world."

The fourth: "HOW DOES SHE NOT LOOK GUILTY?!"

Emily made sure that she left Hanna's phone the way she found it before sitting back down on her bed. She was in shock. Alison was playing Hanna like a puppet, like she did during freshman year. And Emily thought that Hanna knew better since those days. But she clearly didn't.

Hanna returned from her shower. She noticed Emily's expression. "What's up?" she asked.


	8. Devil in Disguise

**Author's Note: **I know the Ezria scenes may be a bit random, but believe me when I say that Mr Fitz will be playing a very important role in the climax of this fanfic. I'm glad you guys liked my oneshot Homecoming. Unfortunately, it will stay a oneshot as I want to devote my time to recapping season 3B with my girlfriend on our Tumblr (follow us at thebedpotatoes) and to writing Marianas. So... enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Hanna's phone went off. She knew she ought to read the text message, but she couldn't shake the way that Emily was looking at her.

"Aren't you going to get your phone?" asked Emily.

"It's probably just Mona," said Hanna, waving it off.

"I don't know. It may be important." Emily stood up and took Hanna's phone.

Hanna lunged across the room. "No! Don't read that!" she cried out.

"Five messages and one photo from Ali," said Emily. She scanned the screen. "Hanna, why are you talking to Ali about Paige and Caleb?"

"For the record, she talked to me first," said Hanna. "Now give me my phone back."

Emily tucked the phone into the pocket of her hoodie. "I'm going to tell Spencer and Aria to come over." She started reaching for her own phone. "We need to talk about this."

"No!" exclaimed Hanna. "If we're gonna talk about this, I'd like to keep it between us."

Emily considered it. "Okay," she said finally. She sat down on her bed. "I'm still keeping your phone for the moment. But talk."

Hanna explained how Alison approached her in history class, asking if there was anything fishy going on about Paige and her boyfriend. "I was sure that nothing was going on but Ali kept bugging me about it that I got paranoid myself," she told Emily.

"We know very well that Ali has that effect on people," said Emily. "She played you, Hanna."

Hanna looked down, avoiding Emily's eye. "I suppose she did," she said. "I can't believe it. She was gone for a year, then she comes back and just picks up where she left off. And it worked!"

"I know."

"I have to apologise to Caleb, don't I?" asked Hanna.

Emily nodded. "And to Paige," she added. "No one likes being wrongly accused."

"Okay," said Hanna.

"And I'm going to talk to Ali," said Emily.

Hanna's eyes widened. "What? What do you mean you're going to talk to Ali?" she asked.

"It's a long overdue conversation, but I want to tell her that she can't push us around anymore." Emily's face was grim and determined.

"God, who are you and what have you done to Emily Fields?" Hanna managed a smile. "Did they beat you with a Hastings stick or something?"

"You're my best friend. No one messes with you without me getting angry about it," said Emily. She put her hand in her pocket and tossed Hanna her phone. "Delete Ali's number, block it if you have to," she told her.

* * *

Emily didn't have an afternoon practice, so she signed out at reception to go to town after her classes finished. Samara had texted her earlier that day, asking if she was up for a coffee at the Rear Window Brew. She hadn't seen her girlfriend in a few days because of their busy schedules, so Emily took the opportunity to unwind with her.

"I'm waiting for our orders to arrive," Samara told her as she sat down at the corner table. "Mocha latte, right?"

"Yeah, that's the one," said Emily. "Did you want to get anything else? I could get a slice of pie or cake or something."

"No, the coffee's fine. I'm still full from lunch," said Samara. She smiled and took Emily's hands in her own. "How have you been, Em?" she asked.

"Busy with training and school," said Emily. "Whoever said it was a good idea to take two AP, two Honors and work to stay on the starting lineup for the swim team is crazy."

"That person sounds like Spencer," joked Samara.

Emily laughed. "No, Spencer treats me like her baby sister. If I let on that I was getting so tired that I've been taking power naps, she would tuck me in and talk to my advisor about dropping a class or something," she said. "And you? How have you been?"

"My schedule's packed!" said Samara. "I've got Green Group meetings and GSA meetings. I'm helping out at the soup kitchen on Saturdays and the farmers' market on Sundays. Oh, and I'm on the joint Rosewood-Sheridan committee for the Halloween dance." She grinned at Emily. "And of course, there's schoolwork and my pretty girlfriend," she added.

"Just when I thought you were beginning to forget me," said Emily.

"Never," said Samara. A waitress set down their drinks in front of them. "You're coming to the dance with me, right?"

"Of course I am," said Emily. "How's the prep for that going?"

"Great, so far," said Samara. "Jenna Marshall is on the committee and she's a bit of a robotic control freak," she chuckled, "but otherwise, stuff gets done, so who am I to complain?"

"It's on a Saturday, right?" Samara nodded. "Do you think you can sneak me into your dorm after the party?" Emily asked.

"You want to?" Samara frowned. "Won't you get in trouble again?"

"I can make something up about how my parents are in town and they want me to stay with them over the weekend," said Emily. She gave Samara a look. "You know it'll be fun."

Samara relaxed. "All right, you can come stay over. But you gotta tell me beforehand that all that admin stuff is sorted and they won't find any loopholes," she said. She wagged a finger at Emily. "I don't want to be an enabler!"

"You're not an enabler, Samara. You're the drug," Emily told her.

* * *

Hanna raised a tentative fist to knock on Caleb's door. His roommate Lucas opened the door, camera around his neck and laptop in the crook of his arm.

"Hey Hanna," he said, smiling nervously.

"Is Caleb in?" she asked.

"Yeah. He's locked in though, working on some computer studies stuff." Lucas smiled at Hanna, more confidently this time. "But for you, I'm sure he can spare the time."

"Oh, Lucas," said Hanna, shaking her head.

"I'm going to a computer suite to sort out some stuff, so you two will have some privacy," said Lucas. From any other guy, that would have sounded vaguely suggestive, but coming out from his mouth, it was just respectful.

"Okay. Thanks. I'll see you later," said Hanna. She stepped aside to let Lucas through.

Caleb was sitting at his desk, squinting at lines of code at his laptop screen. He had his headphones in. Hanna spied a hint of a video game logo on the olive green t-shirt he was wearing under an open button-down. He was such an adorable hacker boy. Hanna hoped that after this, he was still her adorable hacker boy.

Hanna tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around, eyes wide and pulled his headphones off. "Hey! What's going on?" he asked.

"Can you spare a minute from your Wall Street hackathon?"

"I wasn't hacking anyone, but yeah, I guess," said Caleb. "What's going on, Han?" He left his desk to sit on his bed, and patted the space next to him as an invitation to Hanna, who obliged.

"Ali was the one who brought up seeing you and Paige together. She asked if she's got her eye on you," Hanna started to explain, "I said no and I believed myself then, but Ali was persistent. I'm sorry that I got paranoid."

Caleb was confused. "Wait, you and Alison are talking again?" he asked Hanna.

"She kind of just backed me into a corner about it," she said. "And somehow she managed to get a hold of my number. And she'd spot you and Paige and would take photos with all sorts of captions to taunt me."

"Tell her to go join a club or something. She has too much time on her hands."

"Emily made me delete and block her number," said Hanna. "I'm sorry, Caleb. I didn't mean for her to get put ideas in my head that way. She's just sneaky."

Caleb ran fingers through his hair. "She's sneaky, all right. She took photos of me and Paige? That's just creepy," he said. He wrapped an arm around Hanna. "Just don't let her do that to you again. We're not fourteen anymore. I've gone through puberty. I can give her a piece of my mind now."

"Please, you look so rough and tumble but you wouldn't hurt a fly," said Hanna. "Not even one that buzzes loudly in your ear and drives you nuts."

Caleb laughed. "You're right," he conceded. "I wouldn't."

"So we're good?" asked Hanna hopefully.

"Yeah, we're good," said Caleb, slowly nodding. He kissed Hanna's temple. "I've got to get back to my project," he said. "Do you mind staying here and watching me work or something romantic like that?" he asked.

"Well, as much as I find that sexy, I've got more apologising to do," said Hanna, standing up and rearranging her skirt where it bunched up around her legs. "Do you know where Paige is? She wasn't in the library and she wasn't in her room."

"Check the pools."

Hanna gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "I'll call you later," she said. "See you at dinner time."

* * *

Emily returned from her coffee date with Samara early, as Samara was called back to Sheridan to sort out a problem with the Green Group fundraiser. Since Spencer had a prefect meeting, Aria had a fit of inspiration and is holding herself hostage in the art studios until dinner and Hanna was nowhere to be found, she decided to spend the rest of her afternoon in the quad, doing homework with Toby.

Emily was doing a problem sheet for Honors Calculus while Toby was writing miniscule margin notes in a copy of On the Road with a very short pencil.

"Are you going to the Halloween dance?" Emily asked Toby.

Toby looked up from his book. "Probably not," he said. "Dances aren't my thing. Neither is dressing up."

"Why not?" asked Emily, pulling a pouty face. "You could go as one of the Beat poets." She nodded at the small headshot of Jack Kerouac on the back cover of Toby's book. "Tatty shirt, messy mop of hair, chewed up pencil." She paused. "Wait, that's not much different from the real Toby," she teased.

"You've got a smart mouth on you, Emily," said Toby.

"Emily!" someone called out. Emily's and Toby's heads searched for the source of the voice. It was Spencer Hastings, arms laden with binders, her hair strewn about her face. "I need a hand!" she yelled as she approached them.

Emily stood up. "What's up, Spence?" she asked. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Toby slouching in his seat as an attempt to seemingly shield his lanky frame behind his paperback.

"These are annual plans and proposals by just some of the school's clubs," said Spencer, shaking her armful of binders. "Assigned reading, you see. Do you wanna take the first couple? I'm struggling here."

Emily plucked some binders from Spencer's arms. Spencer sighed with relief from the reduced weight. "The Artists Collective," she read the label on the top binder. She turned to Toby. "Hey, this is your kinda thing. All grungy clothing and splattered paint and broody gazes, right?" she joked.

Toby didn't say anything. He was absorbed in his book, gripping his pencil tight in his hand.

"Toby," said Emily.

He looked up. "Yeah?" He read the cover on the binder Emily was showing him. "Oh, I've heard of them. Cool band," he said quickly.

"They're not a band!" said Emily. She exhaled. "Okay, you're not listening. I gotta go. I'm going to carry these up to Spencer's room, all right?"

"Okay," said Toby, not looking up from his book. "See you later."

Emily started walking to Thompson Hall, Spencer following after her. "Dude," Spencer said to Toby, "cool pencil!"

* * *

Paige climbed out of the pool while taking deep breaths of the aquatic center's circulated warm air, which smelled heavily of chlorine, not that Paige noticed much anymore. Seated on the bench where she had put down her gym bag was Hanna Marin. "You looking for Emily?" she asked her.

"No." Hanna stood up and handed Paige her towel. "I get why everyone's making a big deal out of you swimming now," she told Paige. "You're like, part fish. Like Emily."

Paige managed a small laugh. "Thanks, but Emily's still the star," she said awkwardly.

"I never understood that," said Hanna. "The star of the team crap. Real stars out in space clump together. That's why we have constellations and galaxies."

"Well, Emily's just Betelgeuse, then," said Paige. "She shines the brightest." She watched Hanna's quizzical look. "Betelgeuse is the star in the constellation Orion's armpit," she explained.

"Probably to emphasise his serious BO," said Hanna. They both laughed.

Paige wrapped the towel around her shoulders. "I'm guessing you're not here to talk about Emily," she said slowly.

"You're right," said Hanna. She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry for being downright awful to you. I just let things get to me so easily."

"Yeah, it's okay," said Paige. "At my old high school, I wasn't really the one girls to get jealous of, so this was a weird experience for me. Although, it's not something I'd want to repeat again."

"I bet," said Hanna. "I hope you don't hate me. Emily and Caleb have said a lot of nice things about you, so if you're friends with them I don't want you to think they have a psycho roommate-slash-girlfriend."

Paige shook her head. "Don't worry about it. I don't hate you," she told Hanna. "Caleb and Emily have talked you up to me as well."

Hanna raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," said Paige. She smiled at Hanna. "And I believe them."

* * *

After dinner, Emily knocked on Alison's door. Jenna was the one who answered it. "Emily," she said, smirking. "How can I help you?"

"Is Alison here?" she asked.

"No, she's catching up on Jersey Shore in the lounge," replied Jenna.

"That can't be. I checked this floor's lounge and she wasn't there," said Emily.

Jenna shrugged. "Then I wouldn't know," she said. "Would you like me to pass on the message?"

"I'm going to keep looking for her, but if she comes back here, tell her that I want to talk to her."

The other girl raised an eyebrow. "Has she been messing with your girlfriends again, Emily?"

"No, but it's none of your business anyway," snapped Emily. "I'm off. Thanks for offering to pass on the message."

As she started to walk away, Jenna called out after her, "And they say you're the sweet one!"

Emily ignored her and sped up her pace. She decided to search the whole building for Alison. Finally, she bumped into her on the corridor of the top floor. The blonde looked much younger in her patterned pajama bottoms and oversized hoodie. "Alison," said Emily evenly.

"Hey, Em!" said Alison, cheerfully.

"What are you doing up here?" asked Emily.

"Some girls on the lounge on my floor popped a DVD in, so I couldn't watch Jersey Shore over there. I had to find a free lounge, so here I am," said Alison. "Now, what are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you."

Alison looked interested. "Looking for me, huh?"

"I want to talk to you about what you did to Hanna."

Alison waved it off. "I was only doing her a favour. Nobody likes homewreckers," she said.

"But yeah, that's the thing," said Emily. "Paige isn't a homewrecker. And she won't be. I can't believe you'd use Hanna to make some new girl's life harder. You don't even know her."

"Whoa, Emily, the way you're getting protective comes off as you having a thing for Paige!" said Alison. "You must be a sucker for those big brown eyes."

"This isn't about Paige," said Emily. "This is about Hanna."

"Is it really?" said Alison.

"Yes, it is," said Emily firmly. "Look, Ali, you messed with us freshman year. You turned us against each other, made us do things we hated doing... but I'm not letting you get away with that this year."

Alison laughed. "You worshipped me," she spat.

"Yeah, we did," admitted Emily. "Worshipped. Past tense." Ignoring the sneer on Alison's face, Emily turned on her heel and left, heading towards the stairs.

* * *

"You're still working in here?"

Aria jumped away from the skirt she was working on at the sound of the voice behind her.

"I didn't mean to frighten you," said Mr Fitz, who stood next to her. "I'm just about to head home but I thought I'd drop by. Your teacher said you were doing some overtime in here."

"I thought you lived on campus," said Aria.

"No, I don't. I live in an apartment in town. It's a studio, but not too cramped. I didn't know what to make for dinner and I didn't want to spring for takeout so I decided to eat in the dining hall with the live-in faculty," he explained.

"That sounds convenient," said Aria.

Mr Fitz smiled. "Yeah, it is quite convenient," he said. He leaned over the piece of fabric. "So, what are you working on?"

Aria touched the hem of the skirt lightly. "It's part of my costume for the Halloween dance," she explained. "It's not finished yet, but it's going to look awesome."

"I'm sure it will," said Mr Fitz. "I'll be there to see it."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "I signed up to be a teacher chaperone."

"What costume are you going to wear?"

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you,' Mr Fitz jokes. He shrugged. "Sorry, that's just the way it is."

* * *

Emily opened her eyes to the sound of a drawer closing. Paige came into view. She was facing away from Emily, pulling a white t-shirt over her sports bra. That's when Emily realised that she wasn't in her own dorm room.

"Morning, sleepyhead," said Paige, turning around. "It's six-fifteen, you better hustle."

"Coffee?" Emily asked groggily.

"You and I know that's a bad idea before an intense workout, Fields."

Emily sat up in bed and stretched.

"I'm going to brush my teeth," Paige told her. "There's a couple of granola bars and some water on Mona's desk. It's also a bad idea to exercise on an empty stomach." She fished out a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush from her bathroom caddy and left the room.

Emily got out of bed to find the granola bars. She unwrapped one and ate it quickly, not even bothering to enjoy the taste. Granola bars made her mouth dry. She took a swig of water before starting on the second one. She was getting into her running shorts when Paige returned, putting her hair into a ponytail. Emily read the letters on Paige's t-shirt.

"Do you have anything that doesn't have UConn or the Huskies on it?" she asked.

Paige looked down at the navy blue "UCONN" on her t-shirt. "Nope," she said. "Hey, I was a coach's kid. It was the next best thing they had to a mascot without having to get into a dog costume."

"I would pay to see you wear a furry Husky head," said Emily.

* * *

Alison was on her way back from breakfast when she spotted a familiar blonde hanging out in the Thompson Hall foyer, holding a paper bag and a tray of coffee. "Hey," she greeted her. "Samara, right?"

Samara smiled. "Yeah, and you're Alison?"

"That's me," said Alison. "What brings you to Rosewood Prep this fine Saturday morning?"

"Well, I wanted to surprise Emily with breakfast," explained Samara. "I texted for her to come downstairs but she's not texting back. Is she in the pool or something? She's not a late sleeper."

Alison remembered catching a glimpse of Emily walking into Paige's room last night. "I don't know," she said coyly. "Have you asked Hanna?" The other girl shook her head. "Oh wait, Hanna wouldn't know."

"Why's that?"

"Emily slept in Paige's room last night," said Alison. "You know, two have been thick as thieves ever since Paige came to Rosewood."

"No, I didn't know that," said Samara.

"Oh?" Alison raised an eyebrow. "They have a sleepover practically every weekend."

Samara tensed. Just then, the doors of Thompson Hall swung open. Emily and Paige entered in their workout gear, sweaty and breathing heavily, but both grinning. The grin on Emily's face only widened more when her eyes fell on Samara. "Hey! What are you doing here?" she asked.

Samara lifted the paper bag. "I brought breakfast. Surprise," she said flatly.

Emily met Alison's eye. The blonde was smiling, eyes glinting maliciously.


	9. Green-Eyed Monsters

**Author's Note: **Paving the way for Paily! Just like everyone, I'm stoked for Season 3B to premiere. I will be recapping it with my girlfriend on our joint Tumblr (thebedpotatoes), so check that out! Thank you so much for the positive feedback, it's been awesomely encouraging. Next week... the Thanksgiving chapter :D

* * *

Rosewood Prep was buzzing with preparations for the Rosewood-Sheridan Halloween dance. People were debating and deciding what costumes they were going to wear. Even the teachers had given up on expecting students to focus during their classes. But not the AP English class.

"Look, if I can deliver a class while being beside myself with excitement at chaperoning the dance, I can expect you to return the favour by paying attention to me," reasoned Mr Fitz, as he passed copies of the new novel they were studying. "From this week until two weeks after Thanksgiving break, we will be focusing on The Great Gatsby. Now, who has read this novel before?"

Aria, Spencer and Paige raised their hands.

"Miss McCullers." Mr Fitz gestured at Paige. "What did you think?"

Paige shrugged. "I thought it was a very interesting novel. I didn't agonise too much over it though. I read it for fun," she said. She watched Spencer whirl around and glare at her.

Mr Fitz chuckled. "Fair enough, Miss McCullers," he said. "Miss Hastings, face the front and tell us what you thought of Gatsby."

"The novel or the character?"

"Surprise us."

Spencer leaned forward on her desk, tapping her fingertips together in thought. "I'll talk about the character. Gatsby represents the unbridled hope and longing and envy in us," she said. "In my opinion, Gatsby may be an annoying man - a slave to his own desires - but he's the most likeable character in the novel. The rest are," Spencer paused, "a rotten crowd."

"A rotten crowd! Everybody, take note of that reference," said Mr Fitz, grinning. "Thank you for your input, Miss Hastings. I'll take the reins now." He tapped the cover of the spare copy he was holding up. "The Great Gatsby is about the Jazz Age - a time when people didn't have to worry about money, so they partied all night long. It's a novel about excess and not worrying about the consequences of losing their inhibitions... something to think about for the Halloween party this Saturday night." He glanced at his watch. "Okay, two minutes until the bell. Read the first fifty pages of The Great Gatsby and get back to me about it tomorrow! Until then, don't worry yourself over your Halloween costumes!"

Aria raised her hand. "Mr Fitz, are you going to tell the class what your costume is?"

Choruses of "Yeah, Mr Fitz!" and "Tell us!" erupted from the students.

Mr Fitz waved his hands for silence. "You'll have to find me," he told them.

* * *

In the corridor of Thompson Hall, Hanna and Caleb talked and laughed amongst themselves on the way to her dorm room. "I love visitation hours," said Caleb. His hands slid from Hanna's shoulders to her waist.

Hanna stifled a gasp. "Caleb, you're getting handsy," she warned him gently.

Caleb took a step forward, so their bodies were almost touching, but not quite. "But I can't help it," he said in a low voice.

"Well, can we at least wait until we get my dorm room?"

"I'm a patient man," said Caleb, smiling. They walked down to Hanna's door. "Emily might be inside."

"I don't know," said Hanna. "We'll see." She unlocked the door.

Emily was standing inside the room, frowning at her phone screen. Books were scattered across her bed. "Hanna!" she said, putting her phone in her pocket. "I didn't know you were hanging out with Caleb here."

"Sorry Em," said Caleb. "Lucas's allergies played up so he's in bed. Not a good time for him."

"I bet," said Emily. She started gathering her books. "I'll go see if Spencer and Aria are in."

"It's okay, Em, you don't have to leave," said Hanna. "Are you okay? You don't look okay."

Emily inhaled slowly. "I'm fine, Han. We'll talk later, all right? You and Caleb can have the room."

"We're cool with you being here, we really are." Her voice was laced with concern. She shot Caleb a look and he resigned to nodding in agreement.

Emily stared at Caleb, unconvinced. "I have to finish this stuff for Biology, Hanna, and no offence, but studying here is like studying in town on a Saturday," she said.

Hanna looked bewildered. "But I do that all the time."

"Yeah, but I'm different," said Emily.

"Is this a gay thing?"

Emily rolled her eyes. "No, it's a brain thing." Books piled up in her arms, she walked out the open door. "Bye Hanna, bye Caleb. Have fun!"

* * *

Emily knocked on Spencer and Aria's door. "Hang on a sec," a throaty voice from the other side of the door said. The lock clicked, the door swung open, revealing a haggard-looking Spencer. "Hey Em," she said. "Physics is killing me."

"Is Aria in?" asked Emily.

"No, she's at the studios working on something," said Spencer.

"Then would you mind if I studied here? Hanna and Caleb are hanging out in my room, and, you know..."

"Say no more!" Spencer looked at the books in Emily's arms. "AP Biology?" Emily nodded. "I could use a break," said Spencer, shrugging. She stepped back to let Emily in.

Emily dumped her stuff on Aria's bed. The room smelt strongly of coffee, which was still hot, steaming out of Spencer's extra large travel mug. Emily nodded towards it. "Whoa, you sure you want to have that before dinner?" she asked.

"Please," Spencer waved it off. "Like that amount would ruin my appetite."

"You're crazy, Hastings."

Spencer smirked. "Don't you know it." She sat back on her bed and tackled the difficult Physics problem that she had been looking at for the last fifteen minutes. It just wasn't coming to her today. Sighing, she looked up and watched Emily half-heartedly thumb the pages of her textbook. "You okay, Em?"

Emily looked up. "Yeah," she said.

"Really?" said Spencer, eyebrow raised.

Emily tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "Samara's just been a bit distant and I don't get why," she said.

"Hasn't she been busy with the Halloween dance? I heard that the decorations are very elaborate," said Spencer. "That probably takes up a lot of her time."

"I know that. But she has hardly replied to any of my texts or even called me back in the evening. She can't be that stressed out that she won't talk to me," said Emily.

Spencer nodded understandingly. "You and Samara are both busy people. That girl has even more extra-curricular activities than I do, and you've taken on a full workload of classes and swim training. Whatever it is, I'm sure she has a good reason for failing to get in touch with you lately," she told Emily. Smiling, she added, "Maybe she even has a surprise for you."

Emily managed a smile. "I suppose it's easy to assume the worst," she said.

"Yeah, but only because it makes the relief taste sweeter."

* * *

At dinner time, Emily excused herself from her friends to sit with Toby, who was eating by alone in the corner of the hall. "Have you made up your mind on whether you're going to the dance or not?" she asked him.

Toby took his time chewing and swallowing a forkful of baked potato before answering Emily. "I think I'd rather stay in my room and watch slasher films on my computer," he said.

"Suit yourself, Toby," said Emily. "But the dance is going to be fun."

"You and Samara will be all over each other the whole night and I don't exactly have anyone else to hang out with, so no."

Emily spotted Paige leaving the food line with a full tray. "Paige!" she called out, waving her over. She turned to Toby. "You mind if she sits here?"

"Absolutely not," he said. He watched Paige weave through the tables to reach them.

Paige sat down next to Emily. "Hey guys," she said brightly.

Emily pointed her fork at Toby. "Paige, Toby. Toby, Paige. Be friends." she declared.

"I think she's coercing us to socially interact," Paige told Toby conspiratorially.

Toby smirked. "I wouldn't put it past her. She's a sneaky one, that Emily Fields."

"And my work here is done," said Emily triumphantly. "You should take Paige to the dance, Toby."

"Whoa, whoa," said Paige, shaking her head wildly. "I did not sign up for that! No offense, Toby."

"None taken, Paige." I still refuse to go to the dance," said Toby. "No offense," he added.

"None taken. Dances are lame."

"Hear, hear!" Toby grinned.

"I don't like wearing dresses," said Paige.

"Neither do I," deadpanned Toby.

Emily sighed. "It's a Halloween party. You don't have to wear a dress if you don't want to. Wear a cool scary costume," she told Paige. "Dress up as Freddy Krueger or something."

"I'll think about it," said Paige. "And you've already got a date so why pressure me to go? And why pressure Toby? Are you dressing up as a pimp?" she joked.

"Or a polyamorous bisexual," said Toby, in an undertone.

"Because it'll be fun? Or do you - like Toby - hate fun?"

"I don't hate fun," protested Toby. "I'm just allergic to it"

Emily's phone beeped in her pocket. She pulled it out and read the screen. "Hey. Excited for the dance but won't be able to pick you up - very busy! Just meet me there instead?" Samara texted.

Emily replied: "I can do that. I'll go with Toby and Paige - can you hold 2 tickets for them please?"

Her girlfriend's reply was almost instantaneous. "Sure, see you then." Emily looked up from her phone. "Shame, suckers," she said. "I told Samara to hold tickets for both of you."

"What!" Toby and Paige exclaimed in unison.

"You two better pick out a costume soon," Emily told them. "You're escorting me to the dance, where I will be reunited with my fair lady."

* * *

Aria lightly shook her costume in front of Spencer. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

"What is it supposed to be?"

"Daisy Buchanan. From The Great Gatsby!" She gestured at the shiny gold fabric on the skirt of the dress. "I've been working on it for weeks. I think it looks great on me."

"I suppose it's pretty flashy," said Spencer. She gave Aria a coy smile. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were wearing that to impress Fitz."

"What? What makes you say that? No way!" sputtered Aria. She blushed, laying the dress down gently on her bed. "Spence, he's a teacher. Gross!"

"But he's dreamy and oh-so-intellectual and can probably quote Gatsby off the top of his head."

Aria frowned at her giggling friend. "You sound like you're the one who has a crush on him."

"Why? Are you jealous?" teased Spencer.

"No," said Aria. She picked up the thickest pillow from her bed and threw it in Spencer's direction. It clipped Spencer's shoulder before landing lamely on her bed. Spencer laughed, and Aria rolled her eyes. "You've had far too much coffee."

* * *

Paige needed to make a phone call. Her dad emailed her two days ago, saying that he was going to be out of town with the water polo team for the weekend, so she used the phone in the lounge for a long distance call to her home in Storrs. Sure enough, her mom picked up the phone.

"Hey Mom, it's me."

"Paige!" her mom exclaimed, surprised. "Is something wrong?"

"Dad said he was going to be out of town so if I need something I should call you."

"If you needed anything you could have just used your phone to call me. It would have cost you less."

"These phones only do collect calls, so don't worry, you're still footing the bill." Paige snorted. "Mom, if I called your cellphone, you wouldn't answer it because you don't usually know where it is," she said.

Her mom paused. "You're right," she said. "I don't know where my phone is."

"I'm planning to go to the Halloween Dance on Saturday and I need some money to put a costume together," Paige told her mom.

"Honey, you know we can't afford a fancy costume."

"It doesn't have to be fancy. I'll work something out. Can you transfer some money into my cash card?"

"Sure, will fifty bucks do?"

Paige smiled. "Yeah, it should. There are a couple of thrift shops in town. I may be able to pick something up from there," she said. "The rest I can get from the Target."

"There's a Target in Rosewood? That's not very classy."

"Just outside of Rosewood. I can take the bus. I think I'll get Toby to come with me."

"Oh, who's Toby?" asked her mom. "Is he taking you to the dance? Is he a date?"

"He's just a friend, Mom," Paige insisted. "I'm going with him and Emily to the dance as a group of friends... you know."

"All right, Paige, whatever you say," her mom chimed.

Paige shifted her weight from one foot to another, eager for the conversation to end. "Okay Mom, I better go so we won't rack up the phone bill," she said.

"Okay, honey," said her mom. "I'll put the money through tonight."

"Thank you," said Paige. "Night, Mom."

"Good night, Paige," her mom replied. "Have fun shopping with Toby!" she added.

"Whatever," said Paige. "Find your phone!"

* * *

The night of the Halloween dance arrived. Paige and Toby walked on either side of Emily, her arms linked with one of theirs.

"Are you supposed to be someone from Star Wars?" Toby asked Emily. He was wearing baggy clothing, haphazardly ran mousse through his hair so it would stay unruly and allowed the girls to liberally powder his face. In the back pocket of his jeans was a rolled up newspaper. "I don't get it."

"I'm Katara, silly," said Emily, gesturing at her costume: a blue karate uniform with the sleeves cut off. She stared disbelievingly at the confused look on Paige's and Toby's faces. "From Avatar: The Last Airbender? Didn't you guys watch Nickelodeon as a little kid?"

"I don't think I had enough time to watch TV," said Toby.

"I liked being outdoors too much," said Paige. She had managed to put together a simple cowgirl outfit using a thrift store plaid shirt, jeans and boots she already owned, and a hat and hip holster she bought from the toy section of Target.

Emily shook her head. "Totally missed out," she said. "Anyway, Katara is a Waterbender. She has the ability to control water. It's really cool."

"How geeky, Fields," said Paige. "Did you and Samara coordinate?"

"No. She's dressing up as Emma Frost from The X-Men."

"Actually," said Toby, "Emma Frost was the leader of the Hellfire Club, so technically she's not a member of the X-Men. And wow, now that you've brought it up, Samara is a dead ringer for Emma Frost."

"I am surrounded by geeks!" cried Paige, as they entered the venue for the dance.

Samara spotted them instantly. "Damn, Queen Amidala!" she said to Emily.

"I'm Katara," said Emily. "From Avatar? No?"

"All I know from Avatar are those lizard-looking blue people," said Samara.

"Not that one! The Last Airbender! You know, the cartoon!"

"No clue," said Samara, shrugging. She showed herself off to Emily. "You like?"

Emily took the opportunity to eye Samara up and down. "Yeah, you look great," she said.

Samara grinned. "I thought so," she said. "Anyway, some more last minute work to be done. I'll see you later when everything is up and running. Love you!" she told Emily, before running off.

Paige watched Emily's face contort into a frown. "You okay, Em?" she asked.

Emily folded her arms over her chest. "Is she being serious? Not even a hug?"

* * *

The Halloween dance was in full swing. Spencer sipped her punch absentmindedly as she listened, for the hundredth time, Aria's gushing over Mr Fitz's shocker of a costume. The young teacher had dressed up in a full black outfit, save for a hat on his head that emitted a bright green light.

"It's just so clever of him, you know?" Aria was saying. "He managed to be a very conspicuous chaperone by dressing up as a literary metaphor. Metaphor, not character. That's just so awesome!"

"It would have been better if he was the eyes of Doctor TJ Eckleburg," said Spencer. She looked at the bottom of her glass. "I'm going to get more punch. You coming? Or would you rather stay with Romeo and Juliet?" She nodded towards Hanna and Caleb, dressed as the Phantom and Christine, cuddled close and whispering to each other.

"I think I'll be fine as long as you don't take too long." Aria uncrossed her legs, before crossing them again.

"Weakling," teased Spencer. "You just don't want to walk in those heels." She started walking to the other side of the floor to the long table of food. Weaving through the dance floor, she heard a few compliments.

"Cool costume, Spencer!"

"Wow, you make a great zombie, Spencer!"

Spencer sighed as she approached the punch bowl. She wasn't a zombie! She scooped more punch into her glass when she noticed Toby Cavanaugh sitting alone nearby. He was hunched over yesterday's copy of the newspaper, cutting it with what looked like small safety scissors. "Boo Radley?"

Toby looked up, grinning, before he realised that it was Spencer. Her outfit was a plain blouse, blue cardigan and subtly patterned skirt with tights and Mary Janes. Her head and face, however, was made up so it appeared charred. "Sylvia Plath," he said slowly. "You have a nice costume."

"Thanks!" Spencer grinned. "You're the first one to guess my costume correctly."

Toby chuckled bashfully. "You're the first one to guess mine correctly too."

* * *

Emily found it difficult to get a hold of Samara during the dance. The blonde was running around all over the place, brushing Emily off as she went. If it wasn't the food, it was the sound system. Emily noticed her paying more attention to a redhead dressed in an X-Men uniform. She tapped Toby on the shoulder. "Who's she supposed to be?" She pointed at the redhead.

Toby squinted. "Jean Grey, by my guess."

"Why are her and Samara dressed in coordinating costumes?"

"I wouldn't say coordinating. They're on different sides, right?"

"Still from the same fictional universe though," said Toby, shrugging.

"I'm gonna go get introduced," said Emily. She walked towards the two girls engaged in conversation. She put an arm around Samara's waist. "Hey, you busy?"

"Hi, Emily!" Samara was surprised. "No, I've managed to catch a break."

"That's good. Are you going to introduce me to your friend?"

Samara grasped her friend lightly on the wrist. "Emily, this is Quin, a friend from Sheridan. Quin, this is Emily," she said. "My girlfriend," she added quickly.

"Hi," said Emily. "Nice costume!"

"Thanks," said Quin.

Emily turned to Samara. "Can I talk to you for a sec?" she asked.

"I can't leave Quin here," said Samara.

"Oh, I'm sure she'll be fine. I'm not sure Emma Frost and Jean Grey made a good team in the comic books anyway," said Emily. She took Samara by the arm and dragged her to a more private area. "Now, can we talk?"

Samara shot an apologetic look over her shoulder at Quin. She turned to face Emily. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I haven't heard from you in a long time. I don't remember the last time we hung out. We haven't had a proper phone call or text conversation or IMed in forever. What's going on, Samara? Are you flaking out on me?"

"I've been busy, Emily," said Samara. "I thought you understood."

"Yeah, of course I understand, I've been busy too," said Emily. "But I still had time to notice that we haven't been talking."

"What do you want from me?"

"I want to feel like I have a girlfriend again. And don't call me needy because we've been going out for almost a year. I have every right -"

Emily was abruptly cut off by Samara. "I cheated on you."

"Excuse me?"

"I cheated on you," Samara repeated.

Emily looked past Samara's shoulder to Quin, standing alone on the edge of the dance floor. "With her?" she asked.

Samara nodded.

"Why?"

"I don't feel that we have anything in common, while Quin and I have a connection. We share things," Samara told her. "I'm sorry. I'd understand why you'd want to break up with me."

Emily stared at the blonde in disgust. "I'm glad you do, because we're over."

* * *

Paige watched Emily leave the building in a hurry. She looked distraught during her conversation with Samara. Paige walked over to Toby. "Did you see Emily walk out?" she asked.

"Yeah." Toby nodded. "I'll handle it." He got up, dusted some tiny cut up bits of newspaper from his jeans and headed for the door. He found Emily sitting on the steps, sobbing quietly. "Em?"

Emily turned around. Her face was streaked with tears. "Toby, you're meant to be inside enjoying the dance," she reminded him. "And don't leave Paige behind."

Toby sat down next to her. "I think she can handle it for a couple of minutes. What's up? Did you and Samara have a fight?"

"We broke up," said Emily.

Toby wrapped an arm around Emily's shoulders and held the girl close to her. "Oh, Em, I'm sorry. What happened?" he asked gently.

"She cheated on me with Quin," spat Emily.

"Jean Grey?"

Emily nodded.

"Oh Em, that sucks."

"And I don't even know where to go for Thanksgiving break. My dad is still stationed, my mom is going to Hawaii to visit family. I told them I was planning on spending it with Samara's family in Ohio. I think I'll just stay at school."

"Oh, don't do that," said Toby. "Come to Chesapeake Bay with me. I'll spring for your train ticket."

"You sure?"

Toby nodded eagerly. "Sure! Otherwise it would just be me and Jenna, and that's no fun."

"And your parents won't mind?"

"I'm sure they'll love you," said Toby. "And we'll have our own time to hang out, as long as we're around for Thanksgiving itself. My dad cooks up a pretty mean turkey."

Emily considered it. It would be a good weekend away from Rosewood, and apparently the food was awful over Thanksgiving break anyway. Besides, she had never been to Chesapeake Bay before. "Okay. I'll go with you."


	10. Chesapeake Bay

**Author's Note: **Did everyone enjoy the season 3B premiere? Those Little Liars, always kicking off with a bang! Make sure to catch mine and my girlfriend's recap at thebedpotatoes before the end of this week. Anyway, stuff is about to go down Paily-wise from this chapter onwards. I really enjoyed writing this, more than I've enjoyed any of the previous chapters. Once again, thanks for the feedback so far, and I hope you enjoy reading!

* * *

Emily and Toby were sitting in the train station while waiting for an available cab to take them to the Cavanaughs' residence near the boardwalk. They had been waiting for a while. As expected, the station was packed with college students and boarding school kids arriving to spend Thanksgiving with their families. Toby was thankful that Jenna took the train to New York so she could do some last minute shopping at Barney's before flying in with their parents tomorrow morning. Otherwise, there would be a few tears shed by now.

Emily was reading an email from Samara on her phone. "I've felt disconnected from you for a while. Your world has always been filled with people who I've struggled to fit in with. I tried, but eventually I realised that I could never belong. I'm sorry, Emily," it said.

"You've been reading that over and over again since we got on the train." Toby was leaning over Emily's shoulder. "What do you want to do about it?" he asked.

"Forget, I suppose," replied Emily, shrugging.

Toby smiled. "I can help you with that," he said.

* * *

The cab stopped in front of a house made out of handsome dark wood. Toby helped Emily with her luggage. While the cab drove off, they stood in front of the house, just staring at it. "Well, this is the Cavanaughs' humble abode, two-point-oh," said Toby.

Emily was curious. "Where's one-point-oh?"

"An apartment in Manhattan," replied Toby. "My parents work there."

They walked up to the front steps and Toby unlocked the oak door. The house wasn't overly spacious, but it wasn't cramped. It had an impressive kitchen and a comfortable, homely living room Surprisingly, it didn't look like it was a place that was abandoned until the holidays. Where Emily expected a dust coating the furniture and covers on the couches, she saw a polished floor and plump upholstery instead.

"We stay here for most of the summer," explained Toby. "It gets too hot in New York. Dad would have gotten the cleaner in, though, to dust and vacuum the place."

Toby pointed out his parents' bedroom, Jenna's bedroom and the study, the door of which was opened. They took a peek inside. There were two desks on either side of the room, both with comfortable executive chairs. One side was plain, almost streamlined for efficiency - Emily guessed that this was Toby's father's workstation. The other side had small piles of paper on the desk, the walls decorated with photographs of vases. "My stepmom is a professor of Ancient History at NYU, specialising in ancient Greek vase paintings," he told Emily.

"That's interesting," said Emily. "Did your mom use this study too?"

Toby nodded. "Yeah, but instead of the vases, she got a couple of big prints up," he said. "She was a senior curator at the Met."

"You have a fascinating family, Toby."

"Dad's an executive, my stepmom's an academic, my dead mother used to work in a museum and my stepsister is the biggest prima donna alive." Toby laughed. "We're stock standard for the upper crust of the East Coast."

"I noticed this house only has three bedrooms. Do you sleep on the couch and I'd have to share a room with Jenna or something?" asked Emily, only half-joking.

"No." Toby led Emily back to the living room, where he fished a key out of a shallow bowl on the mantle. "Our living situation is much better than that. Follow me." They went out through the back door in the kitchen and walked a short path to a cabin made of the similar dark wood as the house. He put the key in the lock and turned. "This," he twisted the doorknob to open the door, "is chez Toby."

Emily stepped inside and scanned the place. On the wall by the door was a small but well-equipped kitchenette. There was a queen bed on the far end of the room, with a nightstand on one side, and Toby's desk on the other. Next to it was a door, which she assumed, led to the bathroom. Separating the kitchen area from the bedroom area was a living room with a couch and a recliner facing a television, with a coffee table in the middle. "Wow," she said.

"My dad and I started building this together the summer after mom died."

"You built this?" Emily was surprised.

"Well, we had someone lay the foundation and the framework and the insulation, and someone to cut the more tricky bits of wood for us, but we did everything else," said Toby. "Although, we had to get someone to do the plumbing"

"It's cool. And it's all yours?"

Toby nodded. "All mine." He opened a closet and pulled out a quilt and two pillows. "These are for you. You're sleeping in my bed. I'll move my blanket and pillows to the couch later."

"You don't have to, Toby. I can sleep on the couch just fine."

"I insist," said Toby, handing her the bedding. "My dad wouldn't like it if I wasn't being a proper gentleman."

"All right," Emily put the bedding on top of Toby's covers. Meanwhile, Toby opened a drawer in the kitchenette to pull out a small pad of paper and a pen. Emily watched as he started writing things down. "What's that for?"

"We're going shopping for supplies. Do you prefer low fat, nonfat, full cream or two percent milk?"

* * *

They drove to the grocery store in Toby's flatbed truck. "This is a gorgeous car," said Emily, running her hand on the hood. "How come you don't bring it to Rosewood?"

"You really want me to bring this to Rosewood? I'll be laughed at," said Toby.

"But you don't really care about that sorta thing."

Toby shrugged. "About my car, I do."

* * *

They picked up enough food to last until Sunday morning: bacon, a couple of loaves of bread, a small jar of instant coffee, a carton of eggs, frozen hash browns, bottles of ginger ale, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Pop Tarts, marshmallows, a jug of milk... "Do you like powdered iced tea or powdered lemonade better?" asked Toby.

Emily was distracted, staring at someone further down the aisle. It was a tall, broad-shouldered brunette wearing a waxed cotton jacket and blue jeans with sneakers. As if she felt Emily's eyes on her, she turned around. "Paige!" exclaimed Emily. "I thought that was you."

Paige was grinning as she walked over to them. "What brings you to this side of the planet?"

"I invited Emily to spend Thanksgiving with me because school food sucks," explained Toby.

"That's nice of you," said Paige. "My dad's brother lives here and the weather forecast is much more optimistic here than in Storrs so he invited us over. Here I am, spending Thanksgiving with the cousins."

"Really? Where's your uncle's house?"

"It's like five minutes away from the boardwalk."

Toby and Emily looked at each other. "It must be near Toby's place," Emily told Paige.

"It must be." Paige nodded. "I got both of your numbers so I'll find out for you and maybe we can meet up and hang out sometime."

"That's a good idea," said Toby. He shook the basket in his hand. "We got food that isn't turkey and I know a good pizza place that delivers, so that's sorted."

Paige peered into the basket. "Looks awesome. What are you guys doing now?"

"Trying to decide between powdered iced tea or powdered lemonade."

Paige stroked her chin. "You can always put a slice of lemon in iced tea if you feel like something more tangy, but you can't un-tangy tangy lemonade," she finally said.

Emily grabbed a can of powdered iced tea on the shelf. "That settles it then."

Paige smiled at Emily as she watched her put the can in the basket. From behind her, a little girl emerged and tugged at her sleeve. "Paige! Paige! Mommy says we gotta go now."

"Okay, that's my cue," said Paige. "I'll see you guys later." She followed the little girl to the next aisle, out of sight.

* * *

The next morning, Emily and Toby awoke to someone knocking on the door. Toby, in a tank top and a plaid pajama bottoms, rolled off the couch to answer it. Mr Cavanaugh stood at the doorway, in a slightly creased, but well-fitted pair of navy suit trousers and a light blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up. "Morning, son!" he greeted. "Happy Thanksgiving!" He had a deep, resonant voice.

"Morning, Dad," said Toby, rubbing his eyes. "Happy Thanksgiving. You guys just flew in?"

"No, we've been here for an hour already. We stopped by the grocery on our way in to pick up stuff for dinner. I know it's a bit early so I didn't bother calling you to pick us up." He looked over his son's bare shoulder to look at Emily, who was sitting up groggily in Toby's bed. "I knew you had company," he said vaguely.

"What time is it?" asked Toby.

"It's nine-thirty. We took an early flight because we needed to work on the turkey. I've basted it and chucked in the slow cooker. Angela's making us breakfast and Jenna's gone back to bed. Do you and..." he paused, realising that he had forgotten his son's friend's name.

"Emily," said Toby.

"Do you and Emily want to join us?"

Toby turned to look at Emily, then back at his dad. "We're good, Dad. We did buy stuff for breakfast yesterday, so we'll make our own," he told him. "Do you need me to help you with anything?"

"You can get the tablecloths we usually use later and fix the table up."

"All right, Dad," he said.

Mr Cavanaugh smiled at them. "I'll see you two later when you're dressed. Sorry for waking you." He pulled the door shut.

Toby walked across the room to sit on the edge of his bed. "He thinks we're dating."

Emily's eyes widened. "What?"

Toby shrugged.

"Toby!" Emily hit him on the arm. "Why didn't you tell him that I was gay?"

Toby rubbed his arm. "I didn't know how he would react."

"There's only one way to find out. I'm going to tell him at dinner tonight," said Emily. She shook her head at the look on Toby's face. "I don't want him to keep waggling his eyebrows every time he sees the two of us."

"He was not_ waggling_ his eyebrows!"

* * *

"Okay, everyone, we're going to go around in a circle and we'll say what we're thankful for," said Mrs Cavanaugh. She turned to her husband. "Michael, we'll start with you, then Toby goes next and so on."

"Right then," said Mr Cavanaugh. "I am thankful for good returns on my investment, a twenty-five percent increase in my net worth..." He watched his wife sigh, and Toby and Jenna roll their eyes. "And an awesome family that never fails to keep my feet on the ground, while my head is in the clouds." He looked at his son. "Toby?"

"I'm thankful for a better art teacher at school, and I'm thankful for my friend Emily here, who has kindly agreed to spend Thanksgiving with my weird family," said Toby.

"They're not any weirder than you, Toby," said Emily, laughing. She dabbed at her lips with the napkin before continuing. "I'm thankful for the multiple families that are willing to offer me a home, including but not limited to: Rosewood Prep, the Rosewood Prep Sharks and the Cavanaugh family."

"How sweet, Emily," Mrs Cavanaugh gushed. "Jenna?"

"I'm thankful that I caught that sale at Barney's before it ended because I really needed a new designer bag." Jenna smirked. "Oh, and the five-day holiday, that's pretty cool," she added.

"Now, don't get me wrong," started Mrs Cavanaugh, "I love family, but what I'm really thankful for is that I now can buy myself that Balenciaga tote as a reward because..." She paused for dramatic effect. "I got the tenureship at NYU!"

Mr Cavanaugh leaned over the table to give her a kiss on the cheek. "Congratulations, Angela! That's amazing."

Toby's parents have put out quite the spread for Thanksgiving dinner. Besides the turkey, there were roast vegetables, chowder, freshly baked rolls and salad. Mr and Mrs Cavanaugh each enjoyed a glass of wine while Toby, Emily and Jenna had glasses of apple juice.

"Where do you work, Mr Cavanaugh?" asked Emily.

"I'm the founder and current CEO of Cavanaugh Capital."

"Basically he farts money," said Toby.

"Money that is going to pay for your architecture studies, son, so let's not get that attitude."

"Jenna, do you know Emily from school?" asked Mrs Cavanaugh.

"We live in the same hall but different floors. And we don't share classes." Jenna looked straight at Emily, who shifted nervously in her seat. "We don't play on the same team either," she added with a smirk.

"Yeah, Emily's a great swimmer. She's being scouted by colleges," said Toby.

"I'm surprised you don't take an interest in your brother's social life, Jenna," said Mrs Cavanaugh.

"Oh, I do." Jenna was nodding. "I just don't swing in Emily's scene, you know what I'm saying?"

Mr Cavanaugh leaned forward in his seat, amused. "You know, Jenna, we thought that if Toby started dating anyone, we'd hear it from you first, but you've surprised us," he said.

Jenna opened her mouth to reply, but Emily got there first. "Toby and I aren't dating."

Mr and Mrs Cavanaugh looked at each other, then back at Toby and Emily. "What?"

"She's right. We aren't dating. She's just a friend who needed a place to stay over Thanksgiving," explained Toby.

"Yeah, and I'm gay," said Emily. "My girlfriend and I broke up not too long ago."

"Oh," said Mr Cavanaugh.

"Oh," said Mrs Cavanaugh. She turned to Jenna. "I see you kept mum about this too."

Jenna sipped on her apple juice. "Well, I thought the misunderstanding was hilarious. Toby dating someone?" She scoffed. "Oh please, give me a break."

Emily glanced at Toby, who just looked down at his plate and finished his meal in silence.

* * *

Mrs Cavanaugh drove herself and Jenna into town early on Black Friday in order to get first picks at their favourite stores at the mall. Mr Cavanaugh left early too. He was heading just across the border to West Virginia to participate in a wine auction. Toby and Emily, who had done their shopping online before Black Friday, had made plans to explore the Chesapeake Bay boardwalk.

Although the sun was out, the boardwalk had significantly less people than average. Everyone had gone out shopping or were still sleeping off their turkey and mashed potatoes. Emily bought corndogs for her and Toby from a stand on the boardwalk. "This is a nice place," she said.

"You think so?"

"Yeah, it's different from the boardwalks in Texas, with the harsh sun and all. And it's different from Rosewood, where you'd be hard pressed to find water," said Emily.

Toby had a huge bite of his corndog. He spoke with his mouth full. "I bet."

The sound of bicycle gears clicking came from behind them. "Toby! Emily!" Paige was pedalling alongside them, smiling brightly.

"Hey Paige," said Emily. "Nice wheels."

"Thanks," said Paige. "Got Dad to stick it on the back of the car for me when they drove down from Connecticut. I needed a good bike ride."

"It's pretty impressive." Emily nodded approvingly.

"You guys still on for hanging out sometime before we go back to Rosewood?" asked Paige.

"Yeah," chorused Toby and Emily. "Tomorrow night at my place?" suggested Toby.

"Toby has a pretty cool place. No kid cousins running around," said Emily.

Paige laughed. "Yeah, but you got Jenna."

"Oh no, I have a little cabin-type thing to stay in. We won't breathing the same air as Jenna, promise," said Toby. "Em and I will pick up some pizza and onion rings at that place I mentioned."

"Do you guys need some money for that?" asked Paige.

Emily shook her head. "How about you get us some drinks, Paige?"

"I'll get some ginger ale and some soda?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me," said Toby. "What do you like on your pizza?"

"Anything that hasn't got any mushrooms," replied Paige.

Emily smiled at her. "Duly noted. See you then."

* * *

Emily's lips felt raw. The wind on the boardwalk wasn't overly harsh, but it wasn't what she was accustomed to. She examined the redness around them in the mirror. "Toby, do you have lipbalm?"

Toby, who was by the stove making dinner, pointed at his nightstand. "There should be a tub of Vaseline in the first drawer."

"Okay, thanks." Emily opened the drawer and pulled out the Vaseline. While she was applying some on her lips, she noticed a spiral-bound book inside. She pulled it out carefully and opened it. There were pages of pencil drawings, mostly of houses and the insides of houses, shaded in meticulously with pencil. On some pages were haphazard, but still accurate, sketches of a very familiar brunette... "Toby? Why do you have drawings of Spencer?"

Toby practically sprinted from the kitchen. "What the hell? What are you doing with my sketchbook?" he demanded.

Emily looked down. "I got curious. It was in your nightstand drawer," she explained apologetically.

Toby took the sketchbook out of Emily's hands. "Please don't tell anyone," he said, eyes darting to everywhere else but Emily's. "Especially Spencer."

"I didn't know you had a thing for her," said Emily.

"Any other guy would have tried to ask her out, but to me, she's Spencer Hastings, you know?"

Emily raised an eyebrow. "Razor sharp and intimidating? I think most guys quake in their boots, even if they want to ask her out," she told Toby.

Toby managed a chuckle. "I just wish I didn't feel like such a loser around her," he said. "She noticed my costume at the Halloween dance, you know that?"

"Weren't you like Heathcliff or something?"

"Emily." Toby wrapped his arms around her. "This is why you're my best friend."

* * *

Paige, Emily and Toby were squashed together on the couch in Toby's cabin, watching a movie on his television. Paige had her face buried in Emily's arm. "Who picked this movie?" she asked.

"Emily," said Toby. He looked bored and somewhat dazed. It may have had something to do with the flask of whiskey he snuck in from the main house.

Emily was giggling at the television. The whiskey was mixed with the countless glasses of ginger ale that they've had, so she was slightly buzzed and warm around the edges. "You're such a scaredy cat, Paige?"

"I really hate scary movies."

"It's not really scary, it's a slasher flick. Just some crazy guy murdering a bunch of teenagers who are stupid enough to hang around in a strange place without parental supervision," said Emily. "The teenagers are most likely drunk," she added.

"Well, we're doomed then," said Paige, making a vague gesture at the three of them. She was the most sober, having made the decision not to have too much alcohol because she was planning on riding her bike back to her uncle's place.

On the other side of Emily, Toby had slumped over the arm of the couch, snoring softly. Paige chuckled. "I think that's a sign to call it a night," she told Emily.

"Don't be silly," said Emily. "Let's finish it, there isn't too long to go."

Paige glanced at the clock hanging on the kitchen wall. "No, seriously," she said. "It's late, I have to bike home, and if I have any more of that spiked ginger ale I'd either pee myself or wipe out on the way."

"Then stay the night."

"You sure that'll be okay with Toby's folks?"

"They wouldn't even know that you were here. And if they did, they'd probably think you were Toby's girlfriend. It's a win-win."

"You know, when you've had something to drink, you go all weird," said Paige.

Emily's eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about? I feel perfectly fine."

"Yeah right." Paige laughed. "Let's go to bed."

"Are you sure you don't wanna finish the movie?" asked Emily.

"I'm sure," said Paige. "Besides, Toby will have a serious backache if he stays in that position any longer. C'mon, let's move him."

Emily turned the television and the DVD player off before getting up. She helped Paige move Toby's legs on the couch and arrange his long body into a more comfortable position. "Do you think we should take his jeans off?" she asked Paige. "Jeans are horrible to sleep in."

"I guess we should," said Paige. Emily unzipped Toby's jeans while Paige worked to pull them off, leaving Toby in navy blue boxer briefs. "I've never undressed a guy before."

"Neither have I," said Emily. They both laughed.

Paige folded Toby's jeans neatly and placed them on the coffee table while Emily took the blankets from the recliner and threw them over Toby. Paige watched as Emily rinsed her face at the kitchen sink. "Are you going to get changed or something?" she asked her.

Emily shook her head as she walked to the other side of the room. "I'm too lazy to think about putting another set of clothes on," she said. Her hands worked inside her shirt to undo her bra, which she threw on top of her suitcase. Then she took her jeans off and stood there in her black boyshorts. "Come on, Paige, show me yours." She giggled.

Hesitantly, Paige undid the buttons on her shirt and slipped it off her shoulders, revealing a light blue cami underneath. Her jeans came off afterwards, and she stood there awkwardly in her underwear.

"Hey, we match!" said Emily, pointing at Paige's boyshorts, which were also black. Emily turned the lights off in the bed area. She hopped into Toby's bed. "Come here, Paige." She patted the space next to her.

"All right," said Paige, sliding in next to Emily under the covers. "Good night, Em."

It took a few seconds for a response from Emily. "I haven't shared a bed with anybody but Samara for a long time," she said.

"I bet," said Paige, unsure of her reply.

"I miss her," said Emily. "But not really." She turned on her side so that she was facing Paige. "I don't know why I'm saying what I'm about to say."

Paige looked at Emily. Her dark eyes had an odd shine to them. "Must be all that whiskey," she muttered, but she too, shifted so that she was on her side. They were face to face now.

Emily laughed, then took a deep breath. "I've always liked how you don't take yourself too seriously. You never have. I mean, Ali was always obsessed with meddling in other people's lives. She rarely took a breather from that and she thought she was invincible. I think she still does. Then there was Maya who would pull away every like, five minutes, to go on about how she was such a sinner and that loving me was a sin and that we were both going to hell. And Samara was always determined to stand out in a crowd, whether it was being the gayest or the biggest humanitarian person ever. She just wanted to stand out. But you, you're different."

"I'm not much for standing out," said Paige.

"I know," said Emily. The mattress creaked as she scooted closer to Paige. "I really, really like that." She reached out, cupping the brunette's cheek in her palm and leaned forward to kiss her.

Paige let Emily kiss her. She tasted like ginger with a bite of whiskey, and onions, but her lips were so soft that Paige desperately wanted to kiss her back. But she couldn't bring herself to. She pulled away, feeling a lot more sobered up.

"I'm sorry," said Emily, sitting up in bed. "That probably wasn't a good idea. I'm so sorry."

Paige got up and started putting her clothes back on. "I think I'm just gonna go home. My dad and uncle would still be out on the porch with beer or something," she said. "I'll see you at school." Paige hastily crammed her feet into her shoes and shrugged into her jacket before bolting out the door.


	11. Dishing the Dirt

**Author's Note: **Just to clarify, Emily wasn't off-her-face drunk when she kissed Paige during the last chapter. She was just tipsy - all loose-lipped and uninhibited, so she sobered up quite quickly too after she realised what she was doing. Anyway, I hope everyone's feeling great. Enjoy this chapter!

* * *

"In this assignment, you will be paired up randomly to write a paper and deliver a presentation on the lives of earthworms or mealworms," the teacher said to her junior biology class. "This will be done instead of the test at the end of the semester, so it will count as forty percent of your grade. Any questions?"

Paige, who had tuned out most of the talk in class, rubbed her temples as a boy from the other side of the room raised his hand. "Do we get to choose whether we want to do earthworms or mealworms?" the boy asked.

"No, those are assigned too that to make sure that I can get about the same quantity of earthworms and mealworms for everyone."

"Wait," a girl from behind Paige said, "you mean we're going to deal with actual worms?"

"I would appreciate it if you put your hand up before you spoke next time, but yes, you will be handling live specimens," said the teacher sternly. Ignoring the sounds of horror and disgust from the class, she continued speaking. "Presentations and papers are due the week before we go on Christmas break, so you have two weeks to get this done. Now, for your partners." She picked up a clipboard and started reciting names.

"Alison DiLaurentis, you're with Paige McCullers, and your specimen will be earthworms."

Paige looked over at Alison, who made eye contact with her. The blonde smiled. Paige averted her eyes and groaned inwardly. This is going to be awesome, she thought.

When the bell rang, Paige tried to get out of the room as fast as possible, but Alison got to her just a few steps from the door. "So, when are we meeting up to do this project together?" she asked. "I was thinking we should use your room. Jenna likes her naps so she'll be annoyed if I have you over to study."

"I don't think that's such a good idea." Paige knew that Mona was terrified of Alison, and she wanted to avoid upsetting her. "How about the library?" she suggested.

Alison crinkled her nose. She clearly wasn't a library girl.

"It'll save us a trip," said Paige. "We need at least three physical book sources, and I don't think either of us would have books about earthworms in our dorm rooms."

"Fine," snapped Alison. "The library it is, then. I can't do Tuesdays and Thursdays because I have practice then."

Paige scratched her head. "I can't do Tuesdays either anyway. Wednesday afternoon?"

"Whatever."

"No, seriously, is that okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine, I'll see you then," said Alison. She turned around and walked out the door.

"After last period, okay?" Paige called out after her. She sighed heavily. This wasn't a project. This was babysitting.

* * *

Trying to find a lunch table in the dining hall was impossible. Paige wandered about looking for girls on the swim team whom she could sit with, when someone grasped her arm. She whirled around, almost spilling the contents of her lunch tray. "Caleb, don't scare me like that!"

"Sit with me, Hanna and the other girls today," he said.

"Are you sure that's okay with Hanna?"

"I thought you and Hanna were cool," said Caleb. "I'm sure she'll be glad to see you."

Paige gave in and followed Caleb to the girls' table. Aria was on her iPad, scrolling through some sketches while munching on salad, Hanna was checking Facebook on her phone while she bit into a French fry and Spencer was focused on her power lunch of a cheese, tomato and avocado sandwich with a diet Coke and a bite sized bar of dark chocolate for dessert.

"Hey, Han," said Caleb. He bent down to give Hanna a quick peck, then ate the rest of the fry straight from her fingers.

"Caleb!" Hanna playfully shoved her boyfriend.

"Paige's sitting with us today," said Caleb. The three girls greeted her.

As Paige was sitting down, she spotted Toby, tray in hand, looking for a table. "Hey, you guys don't mind if Toby sits here, do you?" she asked them.

"No, go ahead," Spencer said through a mouthful of avocado.

Paige beckoned Toby towards them. She watched as he hesitated for a second, then walked over to them. "Come sit here," Paige told him, nodding at the empty chair between her and Spencer.

Toby took a deep breath before sitting down.

"Where's Emily?" asked Caleb.

"She was in chem with me," replied Toby. He sat up so rigidly in his seat, but his eyes were fixed on the sandwich in his plate. "She had to talk to the teacher for a couple of minutes so I think she'd be in line now."

Sure enough, Emily arrived at the table with her tray, looking a little flustered. She sat between Hanna and Aria. "Hey guys," she said, purposely avoiding Paige's eye. "Sorry about that, just some admin problems with my AP entry."

"Is everything okay now?" Spencer asked, her brow furrowed.

"Yeah, it's gonna be sorted out."

"Before test week, I hope!"

"Yeah, I hope so too," said Emily.

Spencer drank some Diet Coke then dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. "So, how was Chesapeake Bay?"

"It was good," said Emily. She didn't really feel like talking about Chesapeake Bay. "Great pizza, Toby's parents were nice."

Toby took the chance to jump into the conversation. "Yeah, and Paige hung out with us too."

"You were there?" asked Hanna. "I thought you lived in Connecticut."

"I do." Paige nodded. "But I have family in Virginia and we spent Thanksgiving with them. They lived near Toby's place."

"We made plans to hang out after we ran into Paige at the grocery store," said Toby.

"Yeah?" Spencer smiled. She had seen Toby around since freshman year but had never heard him speak this many words before. "What did you guys do?"

Toby was back to looking at his sandwich. "Watched a couple of movies, had pizza, talked and stuff."

"Sounds fun," said Hanna. "Wish I could have been there instead of with the wicked stepsister."

"Or the Thanks-for-Melissa-giving," said Spencer.

Emily shifted in her seat.

"Are you all right, Em?" asked Hanna. "You've been quiet."

"Actually, no. I'm going to the room to lie down for the rest of lunch, maybe skip next period," she said. "I'm not feeling too good." She picked up her tray and left.

Hanna watched her, then turned back to the group. "What was that about?"

Toby finished the last of his sandwich, wiped his mouth and got up. "I'll find out." Taking his tray with him, he went after Emily, who was standing in line where the dishes are deposited for washing. "What's up" he asked.

"I'm not feeling well, Toby."

"I know it's not that," said Toby. "You were fine in class."

Emily was silent for a second. "Well, having a meal after inhaling those fumes may have made me sick," she said.

Toby grinned. "You can't lie to me, Emily."

"Dammit, I know I can't," said Emily. She put her tray on the conveyor belt and exited the hall.

Toby did the same and caught up to where Emily was walking. "So do you want to tell me what's going on between you and Paige?" he asked.

"What?" Emily faltered. "What do you mean what's going on?"

"You two are usually chatty as hell. Like I find it hard to shut either of you up when you're together. But today at lunch? Not a word to each other. Are you two fighting or something?"

Emily shook her head. "Maybe she just felt awkward sitting with people she doesn't really know."

Toby stared at Emily in disbelief. "She was talking to Spencer better than you were. I was talking to Spencer better than you were."

"Congratulations then," said Emily flatly. "Glad to see you're making an effort to get over your phobia of Spencer."

Toby ignored what she said. "Please, sort out whatever it is you have with Paige. It's a waste of a friendship. It's the last time I'll bring it up," he told her. "I'll see you later," he said, almost inaudibly, before walking away.

* * *

Alison modeled her new skirt for Jenna, who clapped in approval. "It was such a steal," she gushed. "I love Black Friday in Manhattan."

"I wish I could have spent Black Friday there," said Jenna. "But my parents insisted on going to Virginia just so Michael can make his stupid Black Friday wine auction without having to catch a flight."

"I'm sure the shopping there wasn't so bad. You know, if you're into JC Penney."

"Shut up!" said Jenna, but she was laughing. "It was such a loser fest in my house. Toby brought Emily over because she just dumped her girlfriend. Bet you he thought he was gonna get some."

Alison cringed. "Ew!"

"I know right! And the night before we took the train back to school, he invited Paige McCullers and they had a loser party in his cabin."

"He probably thought he was such a stud." Alison laughed.

"He could have at least picked better-looking girls," said Jenna. "Not that they would come near him anyway."

"God, your brother is so lame," said Alison.

"Step-brother," Jenna corrected. "No way I'm related to that weirdo."

* * *

Emily was there in her bed, running her long fingers down her bare arm, while her tongue explored Paige's mouth. Emily moaned and the delightful sensations spread from Paige's throat to the tips of her toes. Suddenly, they were interrupted by a slightly tacky, but ultimately dorky music that served as Paige's ringtone. Emily pulled away, her nose crinkled in annoyance.

Paige opened her eyes. Her cellphone was ringing. It was five-thirty and she was due at the pools by six-fifteen, so she welcomed the early phone call. After all, it meant no more weird dreams about Emily - for now. As expected, it was her mother, who usually made her calls in the morning before she left for work. "Good morning, Mom," she said in a moderately loud voice. Mona was such a deep sleeper that she never woke up, or she was just too shy to protest.

"Good morning, Paige. Did I wake you?"

"Yeah, but it's okay, I've got a half-hour lap session soon anyway."

"Okay, cool," said Mrs McCullers. "I'm just calling to check in. How have you been?"

"Relieved that Rosewood Prep hasn't been serving any turkey-based dish since we came back from the long weekend," admitted Paige. "Also, the teachers have set into test panic so I guess I have to start caring about school now."

"I hope that you're kidding, Paige. You know it would be great to have a scholarship."

Paige laughed. "Yes, Mom, I was kidding. My grades have been awesome anyway."

"Yes, they have been." Mrs McCullers paused. "So, how's Toby?"

"Uh..." Paige tried to blink away the image of Emily in her dream. "He's good. Why, Mom?"

"Just making sure he's treating my baby girl right," said Mrs McCullers.

"First of all, don't call me your baby girl," joked Paige. "And Toby is a very good friend," she added, more seriously this time.

"Just a 'very good friend'?"

"Just a very good friend, Mom," Paige repeated, sighing. "I don't like him that way, and neither does he."

"Oh, I don't know about that, sweetie, you looked pretty red-faced when you came back from his house last Saturday."

Paige bolted upright in bed. "Mom! It was windy outside and I rode my bike."

"Whatever you say, Paige," said Mrs McCullers. "I'll let you go now. Have a good day and say hi to Toby for me!"

* * *

Emily's backstroke felt worse than ever. She was trailing behind the couple of the sophomores this morning. Each arm stroke was uncertain, and as a result, syncopated with her kicking. Never a good thing with competitive swimming.

"Put your back into it, Fields, let's go!" Coach Fulton yelled from poolside. When Emily finished her last lap, she got out of the pool for a drink of water. "What's up with you today, Em? You tired? Still bloated from Thanksgiving? Both?"

"Probably both, Coach," said Emily, sighing. "I know my backstroke needs a lot of work."

"But it's there, Emily," said Fulton. "You just really need to get that timing right." She glanced at the tablet in her hand. Most coaches used paper and clipboards, but since Fulton updated the team lineup after every training, she needed to keep a better log of everyone's times. With Paige's advice, she bought a tablet and Paige helped her set up the spreadsheets on it, so the lineup would shuffle automatically per new entry of time. "Anyway, you're not swimming in any backstroke at our first meet, by the looks of things."

"Yeah?"

"So far you're swimming the fifty meter freestyle, the second string of fifty meter breaststroke, anchoring the first string relay and swimming freestyle for the medley," Fulton told her. "No backstroke."

Emily exhaled in relief. "Who else is doing the medley?"

The coach listed some names. "Paige is swimming the butterfly, of course," she said.

"Of course," said Emily. "She's brilliant at it."

"She's like a butterfly virtuoso," remarked the coach. "And if you don't watch out, she'd start kicking your butt at freestyle too." She winked at Emily, before she called everyone out of the pool to dismiss them.

Emily took a longer shower than usual to ruminate on her backstroke. She was never good at reaching destinations she couldn't see clearly, she thought.

While she was getting dressed, Paige was already putting her goggles back in her locker. Emily tried to make conversation. "I heard you on track to swimming butterfly in the medley."

"Yeah," said Paige. "It's cool. It's pretty temporary though, can't get too complacent."

"No one can swim that stroke like you around here." Emily hoped she didn't sound like she was gushing in adoration.

"Well, thanks." Paige hadn't met her eye once. She slung her bag over her shoulder and shut her locker door. "I'm starving, gonna go get breakfast."

Emily watched Paige head for the doorway. They were the only ones left in the locker room, thanks to Emily's long shower. "Paige, wait," she called out. "I want to talk to you. About Saturday night."

Paige, looking her in the eye this time around, walked back to where she was standing. "There's really nothing to talk about."

"I want to apologise for embarrassing you and making things awkward between us."

"Forget about it, Emily," said Paige firmly.

"I don't want to forget about it, okay?" Emily a hand through her damp hair. "Were you creeped out? I thought you said you weren't some big homophobe."

Paige tried to hide her surprise. She wasn't aware that Emily was the type to remember what people said from a couple of months back. "I'm not homophobic in any way, and I wasn't creeped out," she assured the other girl . "But when... that... happens between friends, lines can get a little blurry. They need to be unblurred."

Emily nodded. She thought she understood. It sounded reasonable.

Paige took a deep breath. "I just need some space for now, all right? And I think you do too."

* * *

After class, Emily headed straight to Thompson Hall for a nap. Morning swim practice and a full load of classes took it out of her most Wednesdays, but she was even more exhausted because of the perpetual thoughts of Paige. When she opened her door, Hanna was already there, listening to music through her earphones while doing homework. She jumped as Emily walked past her bed. She pulled her earphones out. "Way to announce your presence much?"

"You looked busy."

"I thought you were a ghost," said Hanna.

Emily plopped down on her bed, shoulders slumped.

""You've been funny lately," said Hanna. "Talk to me."

"I've just been in a weird place after the breakup with Samara and all." Emily sighed. "Hanna? What's the right time to start having feelings for other people after getting out of a relationship that lasted almost a year?"

Hanna shrugged. She didn't have much experience with these things in the first place. "I suppose it depends when you're ready to let someone in like that again," she told Emily. "But then again I think it's really up to how much of the world you've closed out by being with that person. If you still kept your world pretty open then I think it's possible to have feelings for someone soon after."

Emily pondered this before nodding.

"I have a feeling that this isn't a hypothetical question," said Hanna. "Who is it? Don't tell me it's Toby Cavanaugh."

"No!" Emily almost started laughing at Hanna's ridiculous hunch. "Toby's into someone else."

"Who? Paige? They looked chummy at lunch on Monday."

Emily shook her head. "He told me not to tell."

* * *

Paige had been waiting for Alison for fifteen minutes, but she wasn't surprised. The girl freaked out handling the earthworms earlier that day and the day before, so she probably was desperate to get out of it. Paige fired up her laptop ten minutes ago and intended to start Googling after checking her emails and social networks.

Her conversation with Emily after the lap session came back to her. She told Emily that lines needed to be unblurred. But exactly what was blurry? Paige clicked on the search bar of her browser. Watching the cursor blink, she kneaded her forehead with a knuckle, then started typing: "how to know if you're a lesbian".

Paige clicked on links that Google had compiled. It was comforting to know that there were many teenagers on the Internet that were in similar circumstances and were freaking out about it too. However, at the same time, she felt frustrated that she could relate to them. She got through puberty without ever questioning her sexuality. She may not have had those all-consuming crushes on any boys - she claimed she was far too busy for that - but she was certain that she was a hundred percent straight.

She found herself on a site for queer teenagers called Oasis Journals and accessed the message boards. It took some searching, but she found a thread entitled: "I kissed my best friend - what do I do?" She clicked on it and started reading.

"We were hanging out, talking about life and one thing led to another and I kissed him. He's gay, and as far as I know, I'm straight. But I liked the kiss. I think I may have feelings for him too. How do I deal with this? I know being gay is okay, but the whole coming out thing is difficult and I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with that just yet," the poster wrote.

"There you are!" Alison exclaimed, striding over to her. Paige hurriedly closed the tab. "Why are you so hard to find? This is like, the middle of nowhere."

"It's next to the biology section."

"Whatever. This is such a stupid project." Alison put her bag down on the desk and started pulling her laptop and folders out.

Paige needed a walk. "I'm going to look for books," she told Alison, and made her way to the shelves under the sign that indicated the sciences.

Why did Paige look jumpy when she arrived? She checked that brunette was out of sight, before bending down to look at her laptop screen. The browser was open to Paige's email inbox, which only had emails from her dad, along with the sports digest of the Hartford Courant - boring. Remembering Paige's jerky movements when she heard her voice, she pulled up a list of her recently closed websites.

"What have we got here?" Alison muttered. She clicked the link. "A writing community for queer and questioning teens?" she read the page header quietly. Her eyes widened when she read the thread on the message board. She remembered Jenna mentioning that Paige dropping by their house over Thanksgiving Break. Alison put two and two together. "Bingo," she said to herself, smiling.


	12. To Go Out with a Bang

**Author's Note: **Double the chapters for everybody!

* * *

Alison was flicking through the calendar on her phone, looking for a suitable date to throw a party. Rosewood Prep didn't hold an official Christmas party, so she had an idea to hold an unofficial one at a venue in town. She ran it by the dean, who said that it wasn't their business if she was paying for it, so Alison took that as a yes. With her father's AmEx number memorised, she had the resources necessary to pull it off.

There were only two and half weeks until Christmas break, yet nothing exciting had happened at school so far. She tried to stir things up by getting Emily in front of the disciplinary committee, then trying to mess with Hanna and Caleb's relationship, but those girls were different this time around. They were older, and less tolerant of her old tricks.

What she found on Paige McCullers's laptop crossed her mind. It was loaded information, but she didn't know what do with it yet. Emily was single and out of the closet, so whoever she kissed was firstly, not anyone's business, and secondly, no longer ammunition to ruin her reputation. Creating a mess on Paige's end was the better idea, but Alison knew nothing about the girl, besides the fact that she was sort of friends with Emily's friends - and they would shut the whole thing down.

She needed to approach this from another angle. She went onto Google and typed "Paige McCullers Connecticut".

Jenna entered the room, startling Alison a little. She switched clicked out of the search results to a website for a party hire service.

"Whatcha doing?" asked Jenna. She read the screen over Alison's shoulder. "Why are you looking at helium balloon party packages?"

"I'm throwing an unofficial Rosewood Prep Christmas party," Alison replied excitedly.

Jenna raised an eyebrow. "Really? They're letting you do that?"

"Only if I paid for it," said Alison. "Which I will."

"You mean Daddy will."

"Yes, that," said Alison. "My only problem is I can't think of the venue. I didn't really like the one we used for the Halloween dance, and I have an inkling those tacky Sheridan girls would have booked it for their Christmas party already. Have you got any ideas?"

"I may have a few," said Jenna. "Are you planning to have booze?"

"Do you think I should?"

"If you're paying for it, why not? I know someone who can get us some kegs on the sly. We can just conceal it really well," said Jenna. She sat down next to Alison. "I have an idea."

"Enlighten me."

"Hire out the church hall."

"Are you joking? We're not going to have a booze up in a church hall," said Alison. "Plus, it's probably booked for pre-Christmas Jesus freak prayer circles anyway."

"Sean Ackard's dad is the reverend at that church. I'm sure if you mention his son for the night he'll free it up for us," said Jenna.

"And the kegs?"

"That's the thing." Jenna smiled triumphantly. "If we hold it in the church hall, the grown-ups will think it's a wholesome party."

"Smart." Alison nodded. "I think that we shouldn't tell anyone about the kegs at all. They'll have to find out for themselves when they come to the party. That way we won't get busted before we even start."

"Great idea," said Jenna. "I can get Noel and a few of his friends to help us with moving stuff. I won't tell them about the kegs until the date itself. Wait, when are you planning to have this party?"

"I'm still thinking about it. Help me."

* * *

Emily and Hanna were in the Thompson Hall basement doing their laundry. "So, are you and Mona swapping rooms again on Friday night?" Hanna asked Emily. "I kind of enjoy the sleepovers."

"I have a meet on Friday afternoon, so I don't think I'd want to train."

"This is the second weekend you skipped the sleepover."

"It's not a sleepover, it's an early morning training regime," corrected Emily.

"Touchy," said Hanna. "Did you and Paige have a fight or something?" Before Emily could reply, Hanna's phone started ringing. "It's Aria." She held the phone to her ear. "You rang?" she said sweetly.

"Shut up," said Aria. "Did you get an invite?"

"An invite to what?" Hanna frowned and gestured aimlessly at Emily.

"Ali and Jenna are throwing a Christmas party. Invites sent out today. Didn't you know? It got slipped under my room door."

"Well, I'm doing laundry with Emily right now," said Hanna. "If they've just been delivered then I'll probably see mine when we get back to our room."

"Should we go? It's kinda weird, going to a party the evil twins have organised, you know? It's kind of short notice so we have to RSVP like, ASAP."

"We'll talk about it at dinner," said Hanna. "Did Spencer get an invite?"

"Yeah, but she's not here yet." Aria sighed. "I'll see you at dinner then." She disconnected the call.

"What was that about?" asked Emily, as Hanna put her phone back in her pocket.

"Apparently Alison and Jenna are throwing a Christmas party together," replied Hanna. "Aria and Spencer were both invited."

"Alison as in Ali?" Emily looked bewildered. "And Jenna as in Toby's android stepsister? I thought those two were destined to be mortal enemies."

Hanna nodded.

"Something tells me this is a bad idea," said Emily, brow furrowed

"Why do you think I'm pulling a Hastings and calling a group meeting over it?" The dryer beeped and Hanna pulled her clothes out of the machine into a basket. "Oh, get Toby and Paige to sit with us too. It would be cool to have them in on this. The more the merrier!"

Emily changed the subject at the mention of Paige. "That is so not Hastings," she said. "Spencer would say that the more people in a group, the harder it is to come to a consensus."

"Spencer is no fun."

"You probably shouldn't tell her that."

"Don't worry, I won't," said Hanna. "She'll beat me with a hockey stick."

"No," said Emily. "She'd challenge you to a game of Scrabble, whup your ass and force you to admit that you had fun, even if you really didn't."

* * *

Alison was late again. Paige rubbed her forehead while staring at her computer clock. Their biology project was due in a week, but Alison never looked bothered about it - not that she was as invested in the project as Paige was. Paige needed the grades for a college scholarship. Alison probably just needed her last name.

The blonde waltzed into the library, a gold envelope in hand. "This is for you," she said, placing it in front of Paige. She put her bag on the desk, but didn't make any moves to open it.

"What is that?"

"I'm throwing a Christmas party in the church hall. It's the Saturday before we go away for break," explained Alison. "I'm inviting everyone in the junior and senior class."

Paige slipped the envelope in the front pocket of her messenger bag. "Thanks," she said. "Alison, you really need to start doing your end of this project. The deadline is so soon."

There was a flash of annoyance on Alison's face. "I'm trying, okay? I'm just busy with this party."

"You didn't have to organise it."

"This place is boring. Of course I did."

Paige stood up, towering over Alison. "I really need a good grade for this, okay? I want a scholarship, and colleges will be combing over my grades."

"God, Paige, why do you have to be so selfish? I'm trying to have fun here."

Shocked at Alison's audacity, Paige let out a humourless laugh. "I'm the one being selfish? Really? You're the one planning a party and doing god knows what else instead of this biology project."

"Well, I'm sorry that you have to work so hard for things." Alison paused. "You really must have something to prove, haven't you, Paige?"

Paige's face twitched. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Alison began to list things, counting on her fingers for emphasis. "Your family doesn't come from money. You come to Rosewood Prep on a sport scholarship. Also, unlike your classmates, whose parents are venture capitalists and property moguls, your father is a college water polo coach." Alison smirked. "But at least he's a well-known one, right?"

"How do you know that?" asked Paige.

"Wasn't hard to find out," said Alison, shrugging. She looked Paige straight in the eye. "Do the project and get off my back about the party."

Paige matched the blonde's stare. "Or what?"

"Nicholas McCullers has an email address on his UConn profile, you know," said Alison, slowly. "You wouldn't want Daddy to be tipped off about your Internet history, would you?"

"What?" Paige faltered.

"Oasis Journals, Paige, really? That was a subtle thread you left open on your computer. Kissing your best friend, huh?"

Paige stiffened. She was sure she closed that tab, not left it open for the whole world to see. She opened her mouth, but no words came out.

Alison slung her bag over her shoulder. "Finish the project alone, don't go running to anyone about it, or your dad finds out," she told Paige firmly. "The sooner you finish, the sooner you can put together an outfit for my party!" With a smug air of triumph, she walked out of the library, leaving Paige standing there, horrified.

* * *

"I hereby declare this group meeting open," announced Spencer, tapping her glass lightly with her fork. Meetings were never held in Rosewood Prep's dining hall, or anywhere in campus that was public. The four girls, along with Caleb, Toby and Paige, sat around one of the bigger tables in the Apple Rose Grille.

Caleb leaned in closer to whisper in Hanna's ear. "I thought you were the one who called this meeting?"

"I did," Hanna whispered back, "but Spencer thinks that a meeting like this should be," she did her best imitation, "facilitated by someone who has experience."

"Hanna, Caleb." Spencer was shooting them a stern look. "I will have order. Thank you."

The two separated, with Caleb muttering, "Freak," under his breath.

"Okay, so today our first - and only - order of discussion is whether or not we're going to attend Ali and Jenna's Christmas party," said Spencer. "I will be taking speakers for, then against."

"I thought you said we were going to talk about the party over dinner," Toby said to Emily, as quietly as he could. "I didn't realise it was going to be a Model UN." His voice had a hint of amusement in it.

"Do you have anything to say, Toby?" asked Spencer.

The smile was wiped off Toby's face as it flushed a deep red.

"I think that we're overthinking this," said Caleb. "Let's just go to the party. I know Ali's evil and Jenna's a bit..."

"Robotic?" supplied Spencer.

Caleb looked satisfied.

"Jenna's evil too, take it from me," said Toby.

"Amen," chorused Hanna and Aria.

"I bet we won't even see them at the party." Caleb looked annoyed. "Besides, it's the last time we'll probably have fun before the holiday season. Boarding school sucks. You're either rich enough to plan New Year's Eve in St Barts with your crew or you're spending it home alone with your crazy aunt."

"I think Caleb's right," said Emily. "Everyone would go to that party, we can just stick to our own and we'll never have to run into them."

"It's still a bit weird going to a party that is organised by someone who makes your life hell," said Aria.

"Yeah," Paige finally spoke up, but to no one in particular. "But not turning up means proving a point that whatever they're doing to you is working." After the incident with Alison in the library, she was rather shaken up and gratefully accepted the invitation to dinner off-campus, even if Emily was going to be present. Paige had dealt with bullies before, but Alison had dangerous information. She can't appear cowardly, though. "I want to go to this party, but I'm not going alone."

"I'm with Paige." Caleb put his fork down. "I want a New Year's kiss with Hanna, even if it's like ten days early."

Hanna put her arms around Caleb. "Oh, you're too sweet! I'm in."

Spencer turned to Aria. "I suppose we're gonna have to go," she said.

Aria nodded.

"Oh no, not me," said Toby. "Parties and dressing up aren't my thing."

"Dude, the dress code is casual," said Caleb. "Don't leave me alone with these girls."

"It would be really nice to have the whole group together, Toby," said Spencer, who made eye contact with him. "You and Paige included."

Toby looked away shyly. "I suppose," he said.

"That settles it then. We're going to a Christmas party." Spencer declared the meeting over.

* * *

Emily and Toby walked around town that Saturday, a week before the party."You are not going to the party dressed like you are now.".

"Why? What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" Toby frantically examined his threadbare long-sleeved t-shirt under his duffel coat, tattered jeans and faded Converse with unravelling laces.

"Do you want the list in ascending order from least to most offensive or the other way around?"

Toby pouted.

"We'll get you some nice clothes," Emily watched as Toby pushed hair out of his eyes. "And maybe a haircut."

"I like my hair," said Toby defensively.

"Sure, if you're going for the anthropomorphised version of a floor mop." Emily laughed. "Don't look so down. We're not going to get rid of the coat. I like the coat. As for everything else..."

Toby crossed his arms.

They walk back to Rosewood Prep, Toby's arms laden with shopping bags, his new hairdo exposing the tops of his ears and his forehead to the winter chill. Emily had convinced him to get two button-down shirts, chinos, jeans and a new pair of Converse. "I'll look stupid carrying all these bags in to school."

"But they're your clothes, Toby," said Emily.

"Guys don't go shopping or get haircuts. Why do you think Noel still doesn't wear any clothes that aren't from the Brooks Brothers?"

"Noel gets haircuts. And probably deep conditions." Emily waved it off. "Well, they won't think you're gay."

"They already do," admitted Toby. "Because I hang out with you."

"Then it's your chance to ask Spencer out." Emily shrugged.

"No way!" Toby shook his head vigorously. "I'm not asking her out because I have to prove that I'm straight." He hung his head. "I don't think she even likes me."

Emily patted Toby on the back. "She's noticed you. It's a good sign."

* * *

Alison read the slip of paper Jenna gave her. Noel's brother's beer guy, she told her. She dialled the number. Someone picked up on the other end. "Hi, can I get two kegs for a party next Saturday?" she asked.

"Who's this?" the guy on the other end demanded. "And how did you get this number?"

"I'm a friend of Noel Kahn's," said Alison tentatively.

"Eric's little bro, kicking up a storm," said the guy. "So you're from Rosewood Prep then?"

"Yeah."

"That'll cost you seventy bucks a keg."

"What! For cheap warm beer?"

"Hey, girl." There was a bite in the guy's voice. "If you knew the lengths the guys and I have to go to just to make sure that we won't get arrested for supplying to kids like you, then you'd get it."  
"Discount for knowing Noel?"

He laughed. "I don't even know him, and I haven't heard from Eric in ages either so don't even try. Seventy bucks each or nothing. And in cash too. I don't want a paper trail through your daddy's credit card."

Alison sighed. "Fine," she said. "When and how do I pay you?"

"Tell me when and where the party is and you pay me there when I deliver the kegs."

Alison told him the details. "Are solo cups included?" she asked.

"You gotta be joking." The guy hung up.

That was another fifty bucks on the AmEx.

* * *

Paige sat with Caleb in the Barnes Hall lounge watching the basketball on the television. Hanna chose to opt out of joining them, preferring to go with Mona to get her nails done. They were alone in the lounge, as many kids at Rosewood didn't care much about the NBA in the first place.

"Caleb?"

"Hmm?" Caleb was on his laptop browsing gaming message boards.

"What do you think of Emily?""

Caleb looked up from his screen. "I don't think I'm qualified to talk about that. She is Hanna's best friend. But personality-wise, I think she's really sweet. Why?"

"Just curious," said Paige, avoiding Caleb's eye.

Caleb raised an eyebrow. "You two haven't been talking lately," he said. "And whenever we're around the group, you've been sulking and so has she. Did she beat you at butterfly or something? Just beat her at freestyle and she'll call it even."

"No."

"Then what?" Caleb observed the expression on Paige's face. "Oh no, don't tell me you've got a crush on her!"

"No, I don't!" Paige denied quickly. "Why, is it bad?"

"So you do like her!" exclaimed Caleb.

Paige worriedly looked around, to see if anyone was in earshot. "Not too loud!"

"Did you guys have a thing over Thanksgiving or something?"

Paige shifted uncomfortably. "Not exactly."

"Then what?"

"She kissed me when she was tipsy. After a long spiel about how I don't take myself too seriously or something."

Caleb laughed. "Tipsy Emily is the best Emily," he said. "Wait, does she remember that she kissed you?"

"Yeah," said Paige. "But I don't think either of us know how to feel about it. I like Emily well enough, but I'm straight - or at least I think I am." She sighed wearily. "I need to figure stuff out." She didn't mention how Alison had threatened her by finding out about her little soul search.

"You do, and then you need to talk to Emily to tell her what you want," said Caleb. "If Emily gets to Hanna first, she'll go crazy over you. You don't want that to happen, trust me. It's like matchmaker meets Bridezilla."


	13. In Medias Res

**Author's Note: **I am going on a month's hiatus after this chapter. I'm going to be busy with work, plus it's the last month before university starts so I'd like to make the most of it doing other stuff than just sitting in front of the computer - I spend more than enough time on it with work and writing PLL recaps at thebedpotatoes. Also, I've got two other fanfics on the back burner that I'd really like to flesh out before publishing the first chapters. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and I'll see you back here in a month :)

* * *

Paige and the rest of the Rosewood Shark watched as Emily did the final flip turn, before zooming off. Emily didn't know it, but she was ahead of the other swimmers, most of whom were just doing their flip turns while she was already a third of the way through the pool.

A few seconds later, the aquatic centre erupted in cheers as the Sharks emerged victorious from the medley. Coach Fulton looked ecstatic as she ran to the girls. "We tallied up some good ranks today, girls! Enough to put us in first place overall for this meet!"

Emily hoisted herself out of the pool. Paige was in sight, grinning at her. Neither of them fully thinking about what they were going to do, they ran to each other and hugged tightly. They pulled away sheepishly after a few seconds. "So," said Emily, "party tonight?"

Paige stuffed her hands in her tracksuit top's pockets. "Yeah, definitely," she said, before wandering off to congratulate the other girls who swam in the medley.

* * *

A conga line was formed on the dance floor, which shook slightly with the beat of the music emanating from the large speakers. The party was in full force. Alison, wearing a short, airy dress that was inappropriate for winter, glided over to where Spencer and her friends were. "I see that we're fashionably late, ladies and gentlemen," she said.

"Nice party, Alison," said Aria.

"Thanks!" said Alison. She turned to Paige, who was standing next to Spencer. "By the way, Paige, thanks for working hard to get us that awesome grade on the biology project."

Paige shrugged awkwardly. "Don't mention it."

Alison beamed at them. "Well, I'm off to say hi to other people. Enjoy the rest of the night!" she said. "Kegs are in the back," she added, before walking away to greet a couple that just walked in.

Spencer turned to her friends. "Kegs?" Sure enough, a bunch of guys from the football team passed by, the telltale red cups in their hands. "Anyone know how she managed to wrangle that?"

"We're better off not touching it," said Caleb. "We can't get busted. I've got a behavior clause in my scholarship."

"So do I," said Paige.

"I have a behavior clause in my contract as a varsity athlete," said Emily. "So do you, Spencer."

"I get sleepy when I drink so I'd rather not touch that." Toby's nose was crinkled. "And I'm not drinking if no one else is."

"I'm guessing we stay sober then," said Aria.

"Oh, that won't be a problem for you." Spencer smirked. "You only ever drink absinthe."

"Warm beer is gross anyway," said Hanna. "I'm sure we can enjoy the night without alcohol."

* * *

Hanna found Mona and they went off to get punch at the drinks table. While everyone else was talking about Emily's winning swim, Paige and Caleb stepped aside in deep conversation. "I think I've figured it out," said Paige.

"Yeah?"

"I do have my eye on Emily."

Caleb frowned. "In a manner in which you want to date her, right?"

"I guess?" Paige bit her lip, hesitating. "I'm going to talk to her about it. Later."

"You really want to? In front of all these people?"

"No, I don't plan to cause a scene." She was shaking her head. "I'll take her aside when I can, take her somewhere quiet and we'll talk it out."

Caleb nodded. He placed a hand on Paige's shoulder. "Good luck with that," he said.

Paige smiled. "Thanks, man."

* * *

Toby knew he was going to get bored quickly, so he brought a Moleskine and a graphite pencil in his coat pocket. It was an unruled notebook, perfect for sketches. He was making preliminary lines, calling on his mind to remember what it could of the exterior of the church hall, when he felt a weight shifting the couch he was sitting on, and a perceptible warmth.

"I knew you were Gossip Girl!" joked Spencer.

Toby hurried closed the Moleskine. "I'm pretty sure Gossip Girl uses an iPhone."

"Are you admitting to watching that show?" Spencer laughed, and Toby's stomach tickled with butterflies at the sound.

"Jenna watches it," he explained. "My family lives in Manhattan, it's quite wanky for her."

Spencer laughed again, and Toby cleared his throat as an attempt to stabilise his breathing pattern. She was so close to him. "Did you just say wanky?"

"I suppose I did."

"God, you surprise me," said Spencer. "So, what are you doing with that notebook?"

Toby hesitated. "I was sketching stuff," he said.

"Can I see?" asked Spencer. "I mean, if that's okay with you."

"Yeah! Of course." Toby laughed, relieved that he didn't have any sketches of Spencer in his Moleskines. He handed her the notebook.

Spencer opened it eagerly and flipped through the pages filled with houses and buildings. "Wow," she breathed. "You draw these all from memory?"

"Yeah, but I put a little twist on them. Like, how I would want them to look if I was the one who designed them, you know?" Toby pointed at an angular house drawn on the page that the notebook was open to. "That one doesn't have a French window in real life but I thought the structure already had way too many sharp edges, so I drew one in."

"It's great."

"You think so? I'm already starting to put my portfolio together for my college applications."

"For architecture? Where are you planning to apply?"

"Cornell, Southern California, Syracuse, Carnegie Mellon."

"I don't know much about buildings but you've got some drawing chops," said Spencer.

Toby gently took the Moleskine from Spencer's hands and flipped to a certain page. "I sketched some interiors too. Colleges like versatile prospects."

"Okay, now interiors I know something about," said Spencer. "Over the summer I took on a project refurbishing the barn next to my house into a minor dwelling type thing."

"Really? How did that go?"

"Harder than it looked. I thought yelling at the computer was bad, until I realised that AutoCAD was the easy part." Spencer chuckled. "You know, this party is kind of a bust."

"Well, I don't think Jenna and Alison are the type of people to throw a party and actually think about how other people will be able to have fun. Except for buying the kegs, but that's only one target market covered."

"How about let's go to the Brew?" Spencer suggested. "Good coffee, better food than this party, better ambient music?"

"Sure." Toby tried to keep his excitement in check as he nodded. "Do you want to tell the others first?"

"I'll just text them," said Spencer. She took Toby by the hand and led him out of the church hall.

* * *

Emily was on the fringes of the dance floor, waiting to get in the mood, when someone grasped her upper arm. She turned around to see Paige there, standing shyly. "Hey." Her breath caught in her throat.

"Hey, superstar," said Paige. "Can we talk? Somewhere private?"

"Sure." Emily nodded. "Let's step outside through the back door." She led Paige around the edge of the dance floor to a nondescript door, which she opened, revealing a quiet, grassy yard at the back of the church. "There won't be any drunks out here." They stepped out and shut the door behind them.

"I want to apologise for brushing you off," said Paige. "I needed some time to think."

"Forget about it," said Emily.

"That's the thing." Paige brushed stray hairs away from her face. "I don't want to forget about it." She paused. "I think I like you, Emily." Paige's voice was reduced to a whisper. "I want to give this a shot."

Emily raised an eyebrow. "This?"

"This." Paige gestured between the two of them. "Us."

"Paige." Emily sighed. "I'm not sure that us is a good idea right now."

"Why not?"

"I've been doing some thinking as well," said Emily. "I don't think I'm over Samara yet." She watched the disappointment on Paige's face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel like a rebound. I swear you weren't. I'm really just not ready."

"It's okay, Emily, I get it." Emily saw that she was fighting to keep tears back. "I'm just gonna call it a night, go back to the dorms or something. I'll see you tomorrow." She started moving to the direction of the town centre.

"Paige!" Emily called out.

"What?"

"We're still friends right?"

Paige sighed heavily. "Sure, Em. Friends." She turned to leave.

Emily ran fingers through her hair in frustration. Losing interest in the party, she went back inside the hall to find Hanna. Hanna and Caleb were giggling in a corner, Hanna perched on Caleb's lap, their foreheads pressed against each other. "Guys," she announced her presence.

The two separated. "Hey Em, what's up?" asked Hanna.

"I'm going home. Muscles are sore from the meet today," she lied.

"Yeah, we get you. You killed it out there," said Caleb.

Emily made a show of flexing her shoulders. "Now I'm paying for it."

"Do you want us to walk back with you?" asked Hanna.

"No, it's fine." Emily tried to smile at them. "You guys look like you're having fun. Just tell the others where I've gone if they ask."

* * *

Aria spied a familiar face, making a beeline for the punch table. "Mr Fitz?" she wondered aloud.

Her English teacher was wearing a navy peacoat, black jeans and a black wooly hat - standard teenage boy winter attire - presumably as a way to not attract attention. Fitz's eyes darted in alarm at the sound of his name. "Aria," he exhaled in relief, raising a finger to his lips. "No one else knows I'm here."

"Oh, so you're a gatecrasher," joked Aria.

"Not exactly." Fitz's eyes roamed the hall again, lingering on the line of students waiting by the kegs. "The dean got alerted by some passerby that there was underaged drinking at this party. He knew I lived nearby so he got in touch with me to check it out."

"And?"

"They were right." Fitz leaned in. "Have you been drinking, Aria?"

Aria shook her head adamantly. "No. My friends and I resolved not to go near the kegs."

"Then you should get out of here. The dean will call the police as soon as I confirm."

"What?"

"You're innocent, aren't you? Trust me, you don't want to stick around for the circus," said Fitz.

"Running would only arouse suspicion," said Aria. "Ali probably has a guest list on her."

Fitz shrugged. "Cook up an alibi. Say you and your friends went early to have coffee. Just get out of here," he told her. "The dean is furious. The disciplinary committee will crack down."

"Fine," said Aria. "I'm gonna go get my coat." Fitz followed her to the coat check. "Why are you telling me this?" she asked him.

"I don't want one of my favorite students to get in trouble," he replied. He pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I'm calling the dean now."

* * *

Emily stepped in the Rear Window Brew. Paige was nowhere in sight, but Spencer and Toby were huddled in a corner, deep in conversation about something they were looking at in one of Toby's notebooks. Emily approached them. "How long have you two been in here?" she asked.

"Well, I've had two cups of coffee already," said Spencer. "You left early?"

"Yeah..." Emily briefly considered telling them about Paige. "Just wasn't feeling it."

"I get you," said Spencer. "Come sit here and have a look at some of Toby's drawings."

"Isn't his stuff awesome, Spence?" Emily sat down. She managed to shoot a sly smile at Toby when their eyes met.

"Yeah, they are," Spencer agreed. "I never would have pegged Toby having such attention to detail."

Toby shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "It's really not that great."

"It's amazing, Toby." Spencer placed a hand over his. "You're really talented, you know."

Three police cars zoomed past the Brew, sirens blaring. Emily, Toby and Spencer leapt towards the window, trying to get a better look. "What do you think's happened?" asked Emily.

Toby squinted. "Looks like they're heading towards the direction of the church hall."

"Crap," said Spencer. "Do you think anyone found out about the kegs?"

"I don't know," said Toby. "But everyone there is going to be in so much trouble."

* * *

Alison sat in the chair across from the dean's desk. The dean was tapping the desk steadily with his pen, while he chewed on his bottom lip, deep in thought. "That isn't going to shake me to a confession to things I didn't do," said Alison.

The tapping stopped. "Miss DiLaurentis, I don't appreciate that comment. No matter how much you deny it, there was alcohol and underage drinking at the party that you organised, so therefore, you are responsible for it."

"I didn't order those kegs. Jenna Marshall was my co-host. Have you asked her?"

"Of course I have," said the dean. "And Miss Marshall told me that you were the one who ordered the kegs."

Alison simply stared at him.

"I'm not from the FBI." The dean clasped his hands together. "I'm not waiting for either for you to break and give a confession, so here's my verdict: I think you and Miss Marshall are bad influences on each other, and therefore I have made the decision to place you in separate dorm rooms."

"I don't think that would be necessary," said Alison.

"Frankly, you're in no place to tell me what's necessary or not," snapped the dean. "We'll inform you of your new room assignments when we get back from Christmas break." He started shuffling papers on his desk. "That's all, Miss DiLaurentis. You may go."


End file.
